I think the _Unsigned attribute would have been a grand idea before. But if we’re now allowing explicit unsigned types, what purpose does it serve?
Do I use the _Unsigned = “true” attribute on every ubyte, ushort, and uint variable? They’re already clearly unsigned according to the type definition. it would only be useful if I wanted to keep declaring the variables as byte but wanted folks to treat them as ubyte. This seems perverse. And would we start putting _Unsigned = “false” on all of our integer variables? All numeric variables? Also note that fully supporting the new types means we can have unsigned integer global attributes. Since attributes can’t have attributes, _Unsigned and valid_ don’t help here. -- Evan On 9/22/17, 9:55 AM, "Signell, Richard" <[email protected]> wrote: Folks, I suggested _Unsigned = "true" because that is already supported by Unidata: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/docs/BestPractices.html#bp_Unsigned-Data http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/mailing_lists/archives/netcdf-java/2013/msg00087.html @Unidata: are you guys are you going to chime in on this? On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 12:40 PM, Charlie Zender <[email protected]> wrote: > _Unsigned = "true" is cleaner and clearer to me > than the valid_* attributes. > To me, Rich's suggestion requires a consensus > to _drop_ valid_* in CF 1.8, and instead make > _Unsigned the preferred workaround for file formats > that do not support unsigned types. > Unless people want to require _both_ > _Unsigned and valid_* (seems burdensome to me), > or allow either _Unsigned or valid_* (seems > crufty to me). What do others think? > > On 9/22/17 04:49, Signell, Richard wrote: >> >> lookin at the NUG, how about saying: >> >> In file types that don't offer native support for unsigned types, >> integer or byte variables that are to be interpreted as unsigned must >> have the attribute _Unsigned = "true". > > -- > Charlie Zender, Earth System Sci. & Computer Sci. > University of California, Irvine 949-891-2429 )'( > -- Dr. Richard P. Signell (508) 457-2229 USGS, 384 Woods Hole Rd. Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598 _______________________________________________ CF-metadata mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata
