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1980-02-06
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HDF Newsletter #3
Contents:
HDF 3.1 Release 2
HDF 3.1 Release 3
HDF ported to IBM/MVS by UCLA
Docs available in postscript
DECStations now supported
IBM PC/Microsoft C Version Now Available
Convex update
Correction: VMS
Bug fix: 24-bit interface
Bug fix: annotations interface
Reformat released
Image 3.0 released
Contributions Directory Added
New utility: hdfpack
New Version of fptohdf: fp2hdf
Examples directory expanded
ACR/NEMA and HDF
Goodbye Chin-Chau / hello Doug
+++++++++++++++++
HDF 3.1 Release 2
On October 2 we released an updated version of HDF 3.1.
These are changes made in Release3.1r2
* added many new subdirectories, includine a "contributions"
directory and a greatly expanded examples directory.
* fixed bug in DFSDIgetslice
* reduced overhead of checking in DFSDIgetslice by adding DFIseek
and DFIread, which do not do the redundant checking
* added MIPSEL machine type for DEC 3100 and DEC 5000
* fixed inconsistency in dfivms.h
+++++++++++++++++
HDF 3.1 Release 3
On December 6 we released another update of HDF 3.1.
These are changes made in Release3.1r3
* fixed bug in DFIemptyDD where contents of tbuf is clobbered
* fixed bug in CSPK32 where floating point Cray numbers are
converted incorrectly to IEEE
* changed DFconvert to call CSPK32 and SCUP32 with icheck so that
underflow, overflow and NaNs are handled correctly.
+++++++++++++++++
HDF ported to IBM/MVS by UCLA
The good folks at UCLA have ported much of HDF to an IBM/MVS
system and have given it all to us for distribution. All of
the porting was done by Joan Slottow at UCLA. This has been
a major effort, and we are very grateful to Joan and her
supervisor, Virginia Hetrick, for undertaking such a major
effort.
The current version of the port supports all 6 HDF interfaces: basic (DF),
raster-8 (DFR8), scientific (DFSD), annotation (DFAN), palette (DFP),
and raster-24 (DF24). The port comes complete with everything you
need to install HDF on an MVS system, source code, install jobs, test
jobs, test programs, and test files.
This software has NOT been compiled or tested on any VM/CMS systems.
(Any volunteers?)
We have placed all relevant files in a directory called
HDF.MVS on anonymous ftp. The README file contains notes
on the files that you need to install this version of
HDF on an MVS system. Details of the changes and additions
that had to be made are described in the file "porting.notes".
Once again, thanks, Joan, for your valuable contribution.
+++++++++++++++++
Docs available in postscript
By popular demand, Jill Peacock (our docs person) has figured out
how to produce postscript versions of our documentation from the
original Microsoft Word versions. You will find them in
doc/postscript on the ftp server.
+++++++++++++++++
DECStations now supported
Thanks to the generosity of Digital, we now have a DEC 3100 in our
group. And, thanks to several of you who had already ported HDF to
3100s, we were able to use the fruits of your experience to do a
quick port. It appears to work fine, but only time will tell if
everything works perfectly.
MAKE.DECST, a makefile for Decstations, has been placed on anonymous
ftp in the HDF/src directory. Also, look at the HINTS file in the
same directory for pointers on a few possible problems.
Conrad Wilgus of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was able
to port HDF to a DEC 5000 as well as a 3100. He reports that the
machines appear to be identical as far as installing HDF is concerned.
Also, several people have apparently been using the NCSA X window tools
on their 3100s with success.
Let us know if you run into any problems.
+++++++++++++++++
IBM PC/Microsoft C Version Now Available
The PC version of HDF that is currently stored on the server is 3.0.
Contrary to what was reported in the last newsletter, this version
does work with Microsoft C.
HDF 3.1 has not been ported to the PC yet, but we are working on it.
++++++++++++++++
Convex support update
One of the most popular unofficial platforms for HDF has been Convex.
A number of people have ported HDF to Convexes, thanks largely to
initial efforts by Paul Fons at U of Illinois and Greg Cook at
UNC Chapel Hill. Paul did the initial work, then Greg did a port
and sent me a description of what he did. Paul and Greg's ports
assume that Convex "native mode" is in effect, (i.e., Convex's
floating point representation is used for floats).
Just recently Fred Walsteijn of the U of Utrecht (The Netherlands)
did an "IEEE mode" port. He also sent me a description of what he
did. If you want more details about either of these ports, contact
me.
++++++++++++++++
Correction: VMS
In Newsletter #2: In the VMS section, there is
a missing dollar sign before the "sys$login"
Original text:
...
corresponding executable procedure. For example, if the full path
name for the executable hdfls is sys$login:[hdf]hdfls.exe, you
would enter
hdfls :== sys$login:[hdf]hdfls.exe
Correction:
hdfls :== $sys$login:[hdf]hdfls.exe
++++++++++++++++
Bug fix: 24-bit interface
A bug has been discovered in the 24-bit routines. When reading in
a 24-bit image that is stored in pixel-interlace form, if you ask
to convert it to scan-line interlace or plane-interlace form you
get an incorrect image. To fix the bug, find the routine DFGRIgetimlut
in dfgr.c and find the lines that say:
currmax[1] = Grread.datadesc[type].ydim;
currmax[2] = Grread.datadesc[type].xdim;
change them to
currmax[1] = Grread.datadesc[type].xdim;
currmax[2] = Grread.datadesc[type].ydim;
Note that the x and y are interchanged. This should fix the bug.
The code that is now on anonymous ftp reflects this change.
++++++++++++++++
Bug fix: annotations interface
A bug has been discovered in the annotations interface. The routine
DFANlablist does not return the correct number of reference numbers
in the parameter reflist. On some machines, this bug also causes
a segmentation fault. To fix the bug, find the routine dailist in
dfanF.c and make the following changes.
Change the line:
tempreflist = (uint16 *) DFIgetspace( (*maxlen) * sizeof(uint16) );
to:
tempreflist = (uint16 *) DFIgetspace( (*listsize) * sizeof(uint16) );
and change:
for (i=0; i < *maxlen; i++)
to:
for (i=0; i < *listsize; i++)
The code that is now on anonymous ftp in "HDF/src" reflects this change,
but the release 3 tar files, etc., do not.
++++++++++++++++
Import2HDF and Reformat released
Two utilities that we announced as beta releases in the last
newsletter have now been officially released.
NCSA Reformat, the UNIX-based file converter that we announced as a
beta release in the last newsletter, has been expanded a bit.
It has been tested on Crays, Suns, and SGIs, and seems to work
pretty well. It now converts X window dumps, Sun Raster, TIFF,
FITS, and GIFF files to HDF. NCSA Reformat is in a directory
on anonymous ftp called "Reformat."
NCSA Import2HDF, the Mac II equivalent, has also been formally released.
This utility converts FITS, TIFF, GIFF, PICT, Ras raster, and ascii
files to HDF. NCSA Import2HDF is in a directory on anonymous ftp called
"Import2HDF."
++++++++++++++++
Image 3.0 released
This is the newest installation of the Image program. We
have added many new features to the program which we hope
you will find useful. Below is a quick description of the
new features.
(1) HDF List window:
You can now display the contents of an HDF file in a list
form. The list window allows you to load images and
animations.
(2) Distributed Computing:
We have added a distributed computing feature to image. This
feature is implemented via the items in the Tools menu, "Load
calculations," and "Show calculations." Either of these two options
will create a text edit window.
To execute a command from the Calculations window, use the Enter
key on the keypad. Initially, the Calculations window will be in
Parser mode. In this mode, Image3 will try to interpret anything
you enter (using the Enter key) as a command. It understands only
one command, StartDTM. This command will allow you to connect to a
remote machine and run a program there. The program on the remote
machine must be modified to communicate using the Data Transport
Mechanism, developed at NCSA by Jeff Terstriep and others.
...
(3) Support for 3D datasets.
Image 3 has limited 3D volume visualization capability.
To open a 3D data set, which must be stored as an SDS record in an
HDF file, use the Open item in the File menu and select either the
HDF or HDF List option in the open file dialog. If you select HDF
List, then simply open the SDS record from the HDF List window.
When you open a 3D volume, first a 3D Options dialog appears to request
the type of display and parameters to control the display. Along the
left are the options Animate, Dots, Wire Frame, and Shaded Polygons.
Animate, the default, creates an animation window where each frame
of the animation is a plane of the volume. You can specify which
axis to animate across by selecting either X, Y, or Z.
If you select Dots, a fairly fast algorithm, is used to plot a dot for
each unit cube of the volume that contains one of the data values
specified. You may enter the data values individually or specify
an evenly spaced list of values. The other two display types, Wire
Frame, and Shaded Polygons, both use a "marching cubes" algorithm to
plot isosurfaces for given data values. The color used when plotting
each value is taken from the corresponding position in the current
palette.
For the last three display types, two additional tools are available to
manipulate the display. The rotation tool rotates the view of the data
volume while the perspective tool alters the apparent depth, keeping
the data volume at the same distance. You can change the size of the
window with the grow box, and the volume will be magnified to fit, but
no option exists to magnify independently or to select part of the
volume to display.
Thomas Redman
Project Leader
redman@ncsa.uiuc.edu
++++++++++++++++
Contributions Directory Added
Now there is a "contrib" directory with several subdirectories
containing contributions donated by HDF users.
Unfortunately, NCSA is not able to support this software at
this time, but we encourage you to use it and send comments,
upgrades, etc., to us and the authors.
We sincerely thank the people who have gone to the trouble of
packaging and donating this software, and we encourage others
to do the same.
Listed below are brief descriptions of the contents of each of
the directories. Each directory has a README file with further
details.
=================== amiga ================
Richard Gerber at the U of Illinois has ported HDF to an amiga.
See the README file in this directory for details.
=================== olsen ================
Several utilities (with man pages):
xwdtohdf - converts X-windows display to hdf
hdftoxwd - converts hdf to X-windows display
qdvtohdf - converts qdv to hdf converter
paltohdf - converts raw palette to hdf
hdfxdis - directly displays HDF image on an X server
Dave Olsen
Materials Science Center, Cornell Univ.
olsen@msc2.tn.cornell.edu
=================== gerardi ================
A new version of the hdfrseq utility:
hdfrseq_new - new hdfrseq routine with special Sunview features
Paul Gerardi
Schlumberger-Doll
=================== salem ================
HDF Image Format Conversion Utilities
hdf2tiff - converts HDF images to TIFF images
tiff2hdf - converts TIFF images to HDF images
hdf2ras - converts HDF images to Sun Rasterfile images
ras2hdf - converts Sun Rasterfile images to HDF images
Jim Salem (salem@think.com)
Thinking Machines Corporation
+++++++++++++++
New Utility: hdfpack
A new utility named hdfpack has been made available on the
ftp server. The purpose of this program is to clean up HDF files
which have been subjected to a lot of deleting or appending. An
invocation of hdfpack looks like this:
hdfpack <oldfile> <newfile>
Where <oldfile> is the name of the file you wish to clean up and
<newfile> is the new name for the cleaned up file.
Some caveats for the use of hdfpack:
1. Your system must have enough RAM to read in the
largest element in the file you are trying to pack.
2.Your system must have enough disk space to accomodate
the new packed file.
3.Although the logical organization of your file will remain
intact, the physical order of your data elements will
likely change. This should not affect any well-behaved
HDF tool.
+++++++++++++++
New Version of fptohdf
Bob Weaver and his colleagues at INEL have greatly enhanced fptohdf.
The new version, which we are calling fp2hdf, supports native
mode floating point (both single and double precision), and 3D floating
point data sets. Bob has also provided C and FORTRAN programs for
generating test files.
Fred Walsteijn of the University of Utrecht has made some
very useful suggestions about improvements to fp2hdf, and
supplied some bug fixes.
You will find all of this in the anonymous ftp directory HDF/fp2hdf.
++++++++++++++++
Examples Directory Expanded
The examples directory on anonymous ftp now contains several
subdirectories, which contain sample and test programs that we
and several users have written.
This is NOT a test suite. I.e. it does not systematically test all
of the HDF routines. But it exercises many of the most common
routines that are used with HDF, and should give a pretty good
indication of what works and what doesn't.
Another purpose for these programs is to serve as examples of how
to make HDF calls.
These programs have only been tested on the CRAY and Sun
systems at NCSA, so please let us know if they reveal any
bugs on your system.
If you have a program that you think might be a useful addition to
these, please let us know.
Here is a listing of the sample programs, by subdirectory. More
programs may have been added by the time you get this. File names
ending in ".c" are C programs; names ending in ".f" are FORTRAN
programs:
sds/buildsds.c - generate and write an SDS
sds/sdsampl1F.f - write SDS, read it back and compare with original
sds/multi_test/multi_test.c - tests basic SDS read/write functions
sds/speed/speedtestF.f - tests speed writing floats to HDF and raw files
sds/speed/speedtest.c - C version
sds/slices/putslices.c - tests storage of 2d array in slices
sds/slices/getslices.c - tests 2d sub-array access
ris8/putim.c - create and image and store it in an HDF file
ris8/putimF.f - FORTRAN version
ris8/manyRIS.c - generate and read back images of different sizes
ris8/getputim.c - show use of DFR8getdims, DFR8getimage, DFR8addimage
ris8/getputimF.f - FORTRAN version
ris8/threeRISF.f - read three RIS's from one file and write to another
ris8/t_bigbufF.f - tests DFR8getimage when buffers larger than image
ann/ann.test - a script that runs the programs
ann/ann_test_results - results you should get when running ann.test
ann/file_ann_test.c - C program to test reading/writing *file* annotations
ann/file_ann_testF.f - FORTRAN version
ann/putSDS_RISan.c - puts some HDF-object annotations in file
ann/get1anF.f - gets one label and one description
ann/getSDSan.c - gets all SDS annotations
ann/getSDSlablist.c - gets list of all SDS labels
ann/getSDSlablistF.f - FORTRAN version of same program
err/err.c - illustrates use of DFerror
err/errF.f - FORTRAN version
util/hdf24hdf8/hdf24hdf8.test - test the utility hdf24hdf8
util/r8tohdf/r8tohdf.test - test the utility r8tohdf
files/ - various files used by the other programs
files/README - describes the files
files/corn.r24 - isosurface from a 3-D nmr array describing
moisture content in a piece of corn.
files/head.r24 - isosurface rendering of human head
files/h200x150.hdf - hdf file with a 200x150 RIS; also a small SDS
files/many.hdf - contains many labels, descriptions, RISs and SDSs
files/old.hdf - contains a label, description, RIS8 and SDS
files/default.pal - default ("rainbow") palette in hdf file
files/grey.pal - grey scale palette in HDF file
files/palette.raw - contains a raw palette
files/greypal.raw - contains a raw grey-scale palette
files/storm110.raw - raw image of data from storm simulation
files/storm120.raw - raw image of data from storm simulation
files/storm130.raw - raw image of data from storm simulation
files/storm140.raw - raw image of data from storm simulation
files/storm110.hdf - hdf image of data from storm simulation
files/storm120.hdf - hdf image of data from storm simulation
files/storm130.hdf - hdf image of data from storm simulation
files/storm140.hdf - hdf image of data from storm simulation
++++++++++++++++
ACR-NEMA and HDF
ACR-NEMA is a standard developed jointly between the American College
of Radiology (ACR) and National Electrical Manufacturers Association
(NEMA) for transmitting digital images and other information used
in the radiology community. In the last several months we have
discussed with several people the possible benefits of using HDF
as an "envelope" for storing and transmitting ACR-NEMA data.
Much of the groundwork for this has occurred at Massachusetts
General Hospital's (MGH) Radiology PAC group, spearheaded by Sean
Doyle and Jaime Taafe, with a lot of interest in their work
coming from NYNEX. Rick Lonon and Dr. Randy Perry at UNC
Radiology are also interested, having independently looked at
the possibility of using HDF rather than a home-grown format
for handling their data.
I had an opportunity to meet the MGH group in September, and we
decided to explore the use of Vsets for ACR-NEMA data. So they
are working on that now. Also during my visit I met Steve Horii,
who is on the ACR-NEMA standards committee, and we were able
to discuss some of the issues involved.
In the future we hope to pursue the directions that MGH and
UNC have started us in. If any of you are interested in being
involved in this effort, or know of someone who might be,
let us know.
+++++++++++++++++
Goodbye Chin-Chau / Hello Doug
In December, Chin-Chau Low, whom many of you know so well as
the HDF guru, finished his masters degree and returned home to
Singapore to help establish a brand new supercomputing center
there. (He may return to us in August to work on his PhD.)
We can't say enough about the tremendous contribution Chin-Chau
has made to the HDF project, both in terms of providing consulting
help and in terms of ongoing development. Besides that, he was
a wonderful guy to work with. So long, Chin-Chau.
Doug Ilg joined us in September, and he will be replacing Chin-Chau.
Doug comes to us from the Naval Research Lab, and has experience
with a number of systems. He has been breaking himself into HDF
during his initial months by testing routines in the new HDF 4.0
general purpose interface, which has included implementing
the HDF 3.1 general purpose interface on top of it. Doug is in
graduate school working on an advanced degree in computer science.
Welcome, Doug!