CDF Changes Log, CDF V2.4

V2.0.0   11-Feb-91  Initial release of CDF V2.0.
V2.1.0    7-Jun-91  Initial release of CDF V2.1.
V2.2.0   20-May-92  Initial release of CDF V2.2.
V2.3.0    1-Oct-92  Initial release of CDF V2.3.
V2.4.0   26-Jan-94  Initial release of CDF V2.4.  New features include...
                      - The distribution has been ported to the DEC Alpha
                        (OSF/1 & OpenVMS) and the Sun (Solaris).
                      - An open CDF may now be configured into zMode.  This
                        causes the rVariables of a CDF to appear as zVariables
                        (already existing zVariables are not affected).  This
                        mode is provided to assist in the transition to
                        zVariables.  The toolkit programs have also been
                        modified to allow CDFs to be placed into zMode.
                      - Support for the Internal Interface (CDFlib) has been
                        added to the IDL interface provided with the CDF
                        distribution (the CDF/IDL interface).  IDL has also
                        added this support to their CDF interface (in a
                        limited way).  The EPOCH manipulation routines have
                        also been added to the IDL interface provided with
                        the CDF distribution.  In addition, an online help
                        file for the IDL interface provided with the CDF
                        distribution is available.
                      - It is now possible to request a decoding other than
                        that of the host computer when attribute entry and
                        variable values are passed out by the CDF library.
                        For example, VAX encoded values may be requested while
                        running on a Sun computer.  This has been provided to
                        assist in the development of client/server systems
                        where the server running on one type of computer reads
                        data values out of a CDF and then transfers thoses
                        values to a client running on a different kind of
                        computer.  The server would request the host decoding
                        of the client computer before reading the values.  No
                        conversions would be necessary by the client.
                      - A new toolkit program, CDFedit, has been added to the
                        distribution.  CDFedit allows virtually all of the
                        contents of a CDF to be displayed and/or modified.
                      - When using the Internal Interface in a C/Fortran
                        application, the need to select the current CDF in
                        every call to CDFlib/CDF_lib has been eliminated.
                        The current CDF is maintained by the CDF library from
                        one call to the next of CDFlib/CDF_lib.  In CDF's IDL
                        interface, however, selecting the current CDF is still
                        required in each call to the Internal Interface.
                      - Support for the Internal Interface from Fortran
                        applications (CDF_lib) on the IBM PC has been added.
                        Its use requires an additional include file to be
                        included by an application.
                      - The ability to read/write a full-physical record
                        from/to up to all of the rVariables/zVariables with a
                        single call to the CDF library has been added to the
                        distribution.  This mode of access is referred to as
                        multiple variable access.
                      - An operation has been added to the Internal Interface
                        which allows the current rEntry/zEntry numbers to be
                        selected by rVariable/zVariable name.
                      - An option has been added to the CDF library which
                        allows an application program to specify the number
                        of cache buffers to be used with an open file.  The
                        CDF User's Guide describes the caching scheme used
                        by the CDF library.
                      - The ability to rename a single-file CDF with a
                        different (or no) extension has been added.  The CDF
                        library will attempt to open a CDF by using the
                        specification exactly as given as well as by appending
                        `.cdf' automatically.
                      - An operation has been added to the Internal Interface
                        which allows the indexing statistics of a variable in
                        a single-file CDF to be inquired.
                      - New EPOCH manipulation routines have been added which
                        allow EPOCH character strings to be parsed and EPOCH
                        values to be encoded.
                      - The default qualifiers for the toolkit programs can
                        now be configured when the CDF distribution is built
                        and installed.  These defaults can be overridden when
                        a toolkit program is executed by specifying the
                        desired qualifiers on the command line.  The `readme'
                        file for each particular type of operating systems
                        (VMS, UNIX, or MS-DOS) explains how to configure the
                        CDF distribution.
                      - An option has been added to the CDF library which
                        allows the floating-point value -0.0 to be converted
                        to 0.0 automatically when detected.  A value of -0.0
                        is illegal on VAXes and will cause a program attempting
                        to use it to crash.  This option can be requested by
                        an application (via the Internal Interface) or with a
                        qualifier when running a toolkit program.
                      - CDFlist has been modified to allow variable values to
                        be displayed in either a vertical or horizontal format
                        (when in zMode).  The efficiency of CDFlist has also
                        been improved (by using the MONOTON attribute or by
                        the user specifying the monotonicity of the variables).
                      - A qualifier has been added to the CDFlist and CDFwalk
                        toolkit programs which allows the specification of the
                        initial settings on the various menus available when
                        running these programs.
                      - A new qualifier has been added to the CDFskeleton
                        toolkit program which allows FILLVAL attribute entry
                        values to be used to specify the pad values for the
                        corresponding variables.
                      - A qualifier has been added to the CDFstats toolkit
                        program which requests that the corresponding
                        MONOTON attribute entries be updated based on the
                        monotonicities detected for the variables.
                      - A qualifier has been added to the CDFcompare toolkit
                        program which requests that the locations
                        (record/indices) of differences detected between two
                        variables be displayed.
                      - A qualifier has been added to the CDFinquire toolkit
                        program which allows the specification of the variables
                        for which values should be displayed.
                      - The capability to use the FORMAT attribute has been
                        added to all of the toolkit programs.
                      - A qualifier has been added to most of the toolkit
                        programs which allows a user to select which types of
                        status codes from the CDF library should be reported:
                        errors, warnings, and/or informationals.
                      - The CDFbrowse toolkit program has been removed from
                        the distribution.  Its functionality remains by running
                        CDFedit in a browsing mode.  The alias/symbol CDFbrowse
                        still exists in the `definitions' file on UNIX/VMS
                        systems but now executes CDFedit in a browse-only mode.
V2.4.1    9-Feb-94  The real DEC Alpha/OpenVMS port.  Both D_FLOAT and G_FLOAT
                    double-precision floating-point encodings/decodings are
                    supported.  Simplified build/test/install procedures for
                    VMS systems.
V2.4.1a  10-Feb-94  Fix to CDFlist involving the creation of CDFs while in
                    ZMODE.
V2.4.1b  25-Feb-94  Spelling lesson (existance => existence).  Limited lines
                    in Fortran source code files to 72 columns or less (some
                    comment lines had been longer).  Added `CDF_lib' to visible
                    symbols for shareable CDF library.
V2.4.2    2-Mar-94  Fixed dimensionality checking in `CDF_create' of Standard
                    Interface for Fortran applications.
V2.4.3   11-Mar-94  Added ability to override default qualifier style of
                    command line arguments for toolkit programs.  Qualifier
                    styles are slash (VMS) and hyphen (UNIX/DOS).  Added the
                    OpenVMS encodings to the error checking when reopening a
                    CDF for write access.
V2.4.4   11-Apr-94  Modified CDFlist to use hyper writes when creating a new
                    CDF.  Added capability to use different C compilers (eg.
                    Gnu C) on UNIX machines.  Default memory model for CDF
                    libraries distributed for the IBM PC is now the huge memory
                    model.
V2.4.5    5-Jul-94  Increased maximum size for a file name.  Modified how the
                    existance of a file over NSI/DECnet is determined on VMS
                    systems.  Modifications to handle CD-ROM drivers on various
                    VMS systems.
V2.4.6   12-Jul-94  Modified decoding routines to handle the problem with
                    decoding "-2147483648" on a DEC Alpha running OpenVMS.
V2.4.7   29-Aug-94  Added missing Internal Interface items (for Fortran and
                    IDL).
V2.4.7a  31-Aug-94  EXIT_SUCCESS_/FAILURE_.
V2.4.8    3-Oct-94  gEntry/rEntry distinction in IDL Standard Interface.
V2.4.9   28-Oct-94  Allocate sufficient space in FindCDF for pathnames.
V2.4.10  10-Nov-94  Fixed <GET_/PUT_,r/zVARs_RECDATA_> for Fortran Interface.
V2.4.11  22-Nov-94  Fixed <CONFIRM_,zVAR_EXISTANCE_> when in zMode.
V2.4.12   9-Dec-94  -2147483648 -> 0x8000000, `long' -> `Int32', new OSF/1
                    release, etc.