NCSA HDF Specification and DeveloperŐs Guide

		Introduction

i		National Center for Supercomputing Applications

November 8, 1993		i

                                                           

November 8, 1993		i





Table of contents


Introduction
Overview	vi
Why HDF?	vi
What is HDF?	vii
Some History	ix
About This Document	x
Conventions Used in This Document	xi
Chapter 1	Basic Structure of HDF Files
Chapter Overview	1-1
File Header	1-1
Data Objects	1-1
Physical Organization of HDF Files	1-4
Sample HDF File	1-5
Chapter 2	Software Overview
Chapter Overview	2-1
HDF Software Layers	2-1
Software Organization	2-2
Some HDF Conventions	2-6
Chapter 3	General Purpose Interface
Chapter Overview	3-1
Introduction	3-1
New Low Level Routines with Version 3.2	3-2
Overview of the Interface	3-2
Function Specifications	3-6
Chapter 4	Sets and Groups
Chapter Overview	4-1
Data Sets	4-1
Groups	4-2
Raster Image Sets (RIS)	4-5
Scientific Data Sets	4-8
Vsets, Vdatas, and Vgroups	4-14
The Raster-8 Set  (Obsolete)	4-16
Chapter 5	Annotations
Chapter Overview	5-1
General Description	5-1
File Annotations	5-2
Object Annotations	5-2
Chapter 6	Tag Specifications
Chapter 6	Tag SpecificationsterfChapter 
Overview	6-1
The HDF Tag Space	6-1
Extended Tags and Alternate Physical Storage 
Methods	6-1
Tag Specifications	6-7
Chapter 7	Portability Issues
Chapter Overview	7-1
The HDF Environment	7-1
Organization of Source Files	7-3
Passing Strings Between FORTRAN and C	7-5
Function Return Values between FORTRAN and C
	7-7
Differences in Routine Names	7-8
Differences Between ANSI C and Old C	7-10
Type Differences	7-11
Access to Library Functions	7-14
Appendix A	Tag and Extended Tag Table
Tags	A-1
Extended Tag Labels	A-4