I wrote a C++ library to create our implementation/schema of HDF5 for data. It was much, much easier to implement than it would have been to do it in C, and easier to understand and maintain. However, when someone wants to use Java, or COM or <insert language here>, it would be much easier for them to wrap a C library than C++, and they go off and write their own implementation of the file spec. I don't know if this is the case on all operating systems, but in Windows it is a lot easier to wrap a C library for use in other languages. I have a feeling that if HDF5 had been written in C++ rather than C, the Java port and the third party Python implementations would probably not exist.
George Lewandowski (314)777-7890 Mail Code S270-2204 Building 270-E Level 2E Room 20E P-8A ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dimitris Servis Sent: Friday, April 23, 2010 10:58 AM To: HDF Users Discussion List Subject: Re: [Hdf-forum] About c++ inside the hdf5 library 2010/4/23 Graeme Burnett <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> John You may find some useful insight here: http://www.tux.org/lkml/#s15 Although this refers to why they didn't do it at the time and why it's not wise to do it for the kernel. Has little to do with a toolkit like HDF5. Personally I don't mind about C or C++, you can rewrite all features of C++ using C and in the end the efficiency of the machine code is more or less the same. It is mainly a matter of maintenance cost for THG. Maybe HDF6 will be native C++? Have a nice weekend -- dimitris
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