Tim, 
There was a discussion of this last year. See the archives:
http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/pipermail/cf-metadata/2013/author.html

Particularly, the thread "Towards recognizing and exploiting hierarchical 
groups":
http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/pipermail/cf-metadata/2013/056827.html

Cheers,
-Corey

On Sep 10, 2014, at 9:53 AM, Timothy Patterson wrote:

> Is it correct to say that, although they don't explicitly state it, the CF 
> conventions (1.6 and the draft 1.7) restrict compliant netCDF products to be 
> either netCDF-3 or netCDF-4 in classic format? There are no conventions for 
> the enhanced features such as groups and user-defined types like enumerated 
> variables, and Section 2.2, as an example, bars the use of unsigned integer 
> variables or string variables (which are even stated not to exist, again 
> implying classic-model only).
> 
> There are some features of the enhanced model we want to use for our future 
> datasets (such as groups) and some features which would make life easier but 
> could be worked around if it led to CF compliance (enumerated types, unsigned 
> integers, string types, etc.). Are there any plans to introduce conventions 
> for the use of these enhanced features at some point in the future or would 
> non-classic model datasets always be seen as non-compliant?
> 
> Thanks for your insights on this issue!
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Tim Patterson
> 
> 
> 
> ---------------------
> 
> Dr. Timothy Patterson
> Instrument Data Simulation
> Product Format Specification
> 
> EUMETSAT, Eumetsatallee 1, D-64295 Darmstadt, Germany
> _______________________________________________
> CF-metadata mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata

-- 
Corey Bettenhausen
Science Systems and Applications, Inc
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
301 614 5383
[email protected]

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