-------------------------------------------------------------------------- THG Home Page: http://hdfgroup.org/ Helpdesk & Mailing Lists Info: http://hdfgroup.org/services/support.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter #97 October 23, 2007 CONTENTS . Release of HDF5 1.8.0 Beta 4 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Release of HDF5 1.8.0 Beta 4 ============================ The Beta 4 release of HDF5 1.8.0 is now available from: http://www.hdfgroup.uiuc.edu/HDF5/release/beta/obtain518.html A list of the new features in HDF5 1.8.0 can be found at: http://www.hdfgroup.uiuc.edu/HDF5/doc_1.8pre/WhatsNew180.html Documentation for HDF5 1.8.0 Beta 4 can be obtained from the following location: http://www.hdfgroup.uiuc.edu/HDF5/doc_1.8pre/ Please note that this release marks a MAJOR SHIFT in APIs that affects how applications must be COMPILED and LINKED with HDF5 1.8.0. The following discussion applies to HDF5 C applications only; HDF5 Fortran, C++, and Java applications are not affected. In HDF5 Release 1.8.0, we are introducing new versions of several basic APIs to accommodate new requirements and features. Thus, in HDF5 1.8.0-beta4, many commonly used functions, such as H5Gcreate, H5Dcreate, H5Topen, etc., have been renamed and macros with the original function names have been introduced. These macros can be mapped at compile time to either the old or new versions of the APIs, which can all be available in the library. "API Compatibility Macros" describes these changes in detail: http://www.hdfgroup.uiuc.edu/HDF5/doc_1.8pre/doc/RM/APICompatMacros.html We strongly encourage you to read this document before compiling any C application(s) with the HDF5 1.8.0-beta4 library. By default, the beta4 release maps the new macros to the NEW API versions that are being introduced with release 1.8.0. This means that C applications that worked with HDF5 Release 1.6.x, 1.8.0-beta3, or earlier, will not link with the HDF5-1.8.0-beta4 library unless you do one of the following: 1) Configure and build the application using this compiler flag: -D H5_USE_16_API 2) Configure and build the HDF5 1.8.0-beta4 library using this configuration flag: --with-default-api-version=v16 3) Update the application to use the new 1.8.0 signatures. Also be aware that the use of new features of the HDF5 1.8.0 library can raise backward and forward compatibility issues that may affect your HDF5 files. The following document describes these issues in detail: http://www.hdfgroup.uiuc.edu/HDF5/doc_1.8pre/doc/ADGuide/CompatFormat180.html Please let the THG Helpdesk know if you have any questions!