Subject: HDFNOW new beta release

From: [email-masked] (Albert Cheng)
Date: 10 Apr 1997 18:29:30 GMT

We would like to announce a new beta release for the HDFNOW library.
The following is the release notes.  Send comments/questions to
        [email-masked]

--
Albert Cheng
HDF Group
NCSA-UIUC

=========================================================================

                          About HDFNOW 0.2
                           March 31, 1997

HDFNOW is a library that supports HDF for a Network Of Workstations.  The
initial design supports the distributed Scientific Datasets for HDF files.

The Distributed SD (DSD) interface is designed for those who are familiar 
with the SD interface and experienced with message-passing programs. The
DSD interface is a layer on top of the SD interface and using MPI for 
interprocess communications.

Changes since HDFNOW Beta release
---------------------------------     

o  Change the internal data structure so that the interface can run more
   efficiently: 

   - Instead of having an universal message format, define message formats
     to customize different requests sent by processes so that the size of
     messages sent by processes are more concise. 

   - Instead of storing fid/sdsid in the internal table, store the indices
     for different HDF files, SDS's and chunks to reduce the search time
     for the targeted files or SDS's.

o  Simplify the DSD interface by removing the argument mhp_rank from 
   DSDnametoindex, DSDselect, DSDreaddata, DSDwritedata, DSDendaccess, 
   and DSDend. Programming task is easier and more robust. Read the man
   pages for the new syntax of the above functions.

Software Requirements:
----------------------

   - HDF distribution release 4.0r2

   - MPICH 1.0.13 distribution.

Platforms/OS supported:
-----------------------

   - HP-UX A.09.03
   - IRIX 5.3
   - SunOS 4.1.3

Steps to install the DSD interface:
-----------------------------------

   - obtain the DSD interface from  
     ftp://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/pub/HDFNOW/dhdf0.2.tar

   - tar xvf dhdf.tar

   - to compile the interface, follow the instructions in src/README

   - to test the interface, follow the instructions in examples/test/README

   - to run examples, follow the instructions in examples/README