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                            Newsletter #75
                           December 11, 2003

CONTENTS
                                            *******************************
. Release of HDF 4.2r0                      *                             *
  - New Features and Changes                * Visit the HDF home page     *
  - Platforms Tested                        * for up-to-date information  *
  - Known Problems                          *                             *
                                            *  http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/  *
                                            *                             *
                                            *******************************

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Release of HDF 4.2r0
====================

We are pleased to announce the release of HDF 4.2r0. It is available
for download from the HDF4 home page at:

    http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/hdf4.html

The HDF 4.2r0 documentation is not yet ready but will be available before 
the new year. You will be able to download it from the following page:  

    http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/doc.html


The RELEASE.txt file in the source code contains detailed information
about this release:
  
 ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF/HDF/HDF_Current/src/unpacked/release_notes/RELEASE.txt


New Features and Changes
------------------------

The major new features and changes in HDF 4.2r0 are:

 o The configuration has changed.  The ZLIB and JPEG libraries were 
   removed from the HDF4 distribution source.  ZLIB and JPEG must be 
   installed on the system before the HDF4 library can be built or the
   HDF4 pre-compiled binaries can be used.
 
   Please read the INSTALL file in the top HDF4 directory for instructions
   on how to build the HDF4 library and applications.

 o HDF4 now optionally supports the SZIP compression method.  Please
   refer to the INSTALL file for instructions on how to build with/without 
   the SZIP library.  SZIP in HDF4 is free for non-commercial use. For
   information regarding commercial use, see:

      http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/doc_resource/SZIP/Commercial_szip.html

   For more information about SZIP compression, see:
      
      http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/doc_resource/SZIP/

   NOTE:  The pre-compiled binaries were built with SZIP compression
   enabled, except on the Cray T3E, Cray SV1 and Linux 2.4 SuSE x86_64.
   To use these binaries, you must download and install the SZIP library.

 o The following new utilities have been added:

    hrepack    - Copies an HDF file to a new file with or without 
                 compression or chunking
    hdiff      - Compares two HDF files and reports the differences
    hdfimport  - Imports ASCII or binary data into HDF  

   The fp2hdf utility has been removed and replaced by hdfimport.

 o Scripts have been added to facilitate compiling:
   
    h4cc       - Compiles a C application with the HDF4 libraries
    h4fc       - Compiles a Fortran application with the HDF4 libraries
    h4redeploy - Updates paths in h4cc/h4fc after the HDF4 pre-compiled
                 binaries have been installed in a new location

 o HDF4 has been ported to AIX 5.1 -64 bit, Mac OS X, and Linux 2.4
   for RH8, RH9, RH8 64-bit, SuSE 64-bit, IA-64, and SGI Altrix.   

 o Several bugs have been fixed in HDF 4.2r0.

Please refer to the RELEASE.txt file in the release_notes/ directory of
the source code for more information on the new features and changes in 
HDF 4.2r0.


Platforms Tested
----------------

  AIX  5.1
  Cray T3E, SV1
  FreeBSD 
  HP-UX  
  IRIX64 (32 and 64 bit)
  Linux 2.4 (RH8, RH9, SuSE, Intel, IA-32, IA-64)
  Mac OS X
  OSF1 
  Solaris 2.7 and 2.8 (32 and 64 bit)
  Windows 
  
For further information please refer to the following page (or the 
RELEASE.txt file):

    http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/release4/platforms.html
                                  

Known Problems
--------------

Known problems at release time are listed in the RELEASE.txt file that 
comes with the source code.

Further information on known problems can be found on the following page:

  http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/release4/known_problems.html


-------------------------------------------------------------

For questions regarding these or other HDF issues, contact:

   hdfhelp@ncsa.uiuc.edu