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                            Newsletter #82
                           February 18, 2005

CONTENTS
                                            *******************************
. Release of HDF 4.2r1                      *                             *
  - New Features and Changes                * Visit the HDF home page     *
  - Platforms Tested                        * for up-to-date information  *
  - Known Problems                          *                             *
                                            *  http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/  *
. Platforms to be Dropped                   *                             *
                                            *******************************

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

Release of HDF 4.2r1
====================

The latest release of HDF, version 4.2r1, is now available.
It can be downloaded from the HDF4 home page at:

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

Not all of the pre-compiled binaries have been generated.  They
should be available within the next week.

The documentation for HDF 4.2r1 is not yet available, but will be soon.
The HDF documentation can be downloaded 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 4.2r1 are:

 o The implementation of SZIP compression in HDF 4.2r0 was broken, and
   could result in data corruption.  The problems have been fixed in 4.2r1.
   Please refer to the HDF 4.2r1 SZIP Release Notes for detailed 
   information regarding this:
     
         http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/doc_resource/SZIP/SZIP_HDF4_2r1.pdf

 o Several new compilers are supported in HDF 4.2r1:
   
       - Fortran IBM xlf v 8.1 and Absoft f95 version 8.2 on Mac OS X
       - Absoft Fortran compiler f95 version 9.0 on Linux 2.4
       - PGI C and Fortran compilers on Linux 2.4
       - Intel C and Fortran compilers on Linux 2.4
       
 o The AMD Opteron is now supported. 

 o The hdiff and hrepack utilities are now supported on Windows. 

 o The Windows configuration, build and testing procedures have been changed.
   Please see the INSTALL_WINDOWS.txt file in the source code for more
   information.

 o The h4fc utility could not create object files and now it can.

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 4.2r1.


Platforms Tested
----------------
      
    AIX 5.1 and 5.2 (32 and 64-bit)
    Altix
    AMD Opteron
    Cray SV1 and TS IEEE
    FreeBSD 4.9
    HP-UX B.11.00
    IRIX64 6.5 (64 and n32 bit)
    Linux 2.4 
    Mac OS X
    IA32 and IA64
    OSF1 v5.1
    Solaris 2.7, 2.8, 2.9 (32 and 64 bit)
    Windows 2000 and XP 

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


Platforms to be Dropped
=======================

We are planning on dropping the following platforms for future
releases of HDF and HDF5.  If this will cause problems for you,
please let us know as soon as possible:

   Solaris 2.7
   HPUX B.11.00
   Crays
   VMS
   Linux RH 7.* and 8.*



-------------------------------------------------------------
For questions regarding these or other HDF issues, contact:

   hdfhelp@ncsa.uiuc.edu