[Nexus] [netcdfgroup] [Hdf-forum] Detecting netCDF versus HDF5 -- PROPOSED SOLUTIONS --REQUEST FOR COMMENTS

[Russ Rew]

On Thu, Apr 21, 2016 at 1:56 PM, Ed Hartnett <edwardjameshartnett at gmail.com>
wrote:
...

> The ability of netCDF-4 to open HDF5 files which were written by HDF5 is
> an important feature. It means that users can use tools that were written
> for netCDF on their existing HDF5 files.
>

However, there are HDF5 files that netCDF-4 will not open and read, by
design. See the answer to the FAQ  How can I convert HDF5 files into
netCDF-4 files?
<http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/docs/faq.html#How-can-I-convert-HDF5-files-into-netCDF-4-files>,
which lists some HDF5 features netCDF-4 *intentionally *does not support,
primarily because these specific features seemed to be of dubious utility
for little benefit.

NetCDF-4 supports a simpler data model than HDF5, and that was meant to be
a feature, not a bug.

--Russ
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