My question was, Is that all it supports ASCII strings for? (Not meant to be a loaded question, but it seems to be at the heart of the discussion and opinions expressed.)
John On Mar 28, 2013, at 18:56, Steve Hankin <[email protected]> wrote: > CF does support using ASCII strings for enumerated lists of named objects: > PI name, ship names, species names, etc. An important encoding ability. > That capability is not in question. > > - Steve > > > On 3/28/2013 9:36 AM, John Graybeal wrote: >> On Mar 28, 2013, at 17:54, Steve Hankin <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> netCDF files are in every sense "binary" files. They cannot be read except >>> by custom-built utilities. (Or is there a constituency that wants to >>> access CF using the unix "strings" command?) In all cases except the >>> present discussion, it is the job of those custom-built utilities to >>> generate formatted string representations of the information contained in >>> the CF binary encoded variables. >>> >>> The entire current discussion would not be happening, if the custom-built >>> utilities and standard code libraries supported the ability to get time >>> information into and out of our binary files using formatted ISO 8601 >>> strings. >> >> >> This is arguably not true. I gave two use cases, one was the derided >> equivalent of your Unix strings command (call me crazy, it fits in this >> case!); the other was the desire to store an ASCII string of particular >> structure and meaning into the binary netCDF file, and then to label the >> information in that binary file with what it is. No more, and no less. (Uh, >> unless I think of another use case. :->) >> >> Seriously, I think some use cases, partly including my first one, go >> directly to your point -- "my tool can't print this timestamp as ISO 8601 so >> I'm going to duplicate the data as ASCII, in that ISO format, as a >> workaround" -- but the second one remains a real use case regardless of >> existing tool support for representations. And it goes beyond time, now that >> we're on this topic. >> >> The fact that most use netCDF as a strict binary encoding does not mean it >> must exclude those who want to use it to store ASCII strings. That is >> perhaps the key criterion -- the community can say "No ASCII string >> representations of anything!", or "No standard names for ASCII strings", if >> either is a constraint they really want. >> >> So, for those who want to be able to store strings, however different that >> may sound, and then label them with standard names when that's appropriate >> -- is the tent open to that? Nothing in the standard suggested to me it was >> not, though it often seems to offend practitioners, so maybe I've missed >> something. >> >> John >> >> --------------- >> John Graybeal >> Marine Metadata Interoperability Project: http://marinemetadata.org >> [email protected] >> >> >> >> > ---------------- John Graybeal <mailto:[email protected]> John Graybeal <mailto:[email protected]> phone: 858-534-2162 Product Manager Ocean Observatories Initiative Cyberinfrastructure Project: http://ci.oceanobservatories.org Marine Metadata Interoperability Project: http://marinemetadata.org
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