CDF Version 2.5, Macintosh Systems Common Data Format (CDF) is a conceptual data abstraction for storing multi-dimensional data sets. The basic component of CDF is a software programming interface that is a device independent view of the CDF data model. The application developer is insulated from the actual physical file format for reasons of conceptual simplicity, device independence, and future expandability. Version 2 of CDF has been rewritten to be portable across a wide variety of platforms. CDF files created on any given platform can be transported to any other platform on to which CDF is ported and used with any CDF tools or layered applications. A more detailed introduction to CDF can be found in the CDF User's Guide. For Macintosh systems, the library and executables are available in addition to the source code. The source code is provided in case you are using a C compiler other than those currently supported (which affects whether or not you will be able to use the precompiled libraries). The currently supported C compilers are Symantec Think C and Macintosh Programmer's Workshop (MPW) C. Fortran support is provided for MPW Fortran. The CDF library and toolkit programs are written in C. A C compiler is necessary to build the CDF distribution (if you need to because you are unable to use the prebuilt libraries for Symantec Think C and MPW). The CDF distribution also contains several Fortran source files which support the testing of the Fortran interface. If a Fortran compiler is not available, the distribution can be built without Fortran support. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WARNING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !! !! !! If you are going to be writing Fortran applications using MPW !! !! Fortran, you'll still need to have MPW C in order to link your !! !! application to the CDF library. This is because the CDF library !! !! is written in C and calls C run-time functions. When linking your !! !! application with the CDF library, the MPW C run-time libraries !! !! will be referenced to resolve the calls to C run-time functions. !! !! !! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Documentation for CDF consists of the CDF User's Guide, the CDF C Reference Manual, and the CDF Fortran Reference Manual. The `RELEASE.doc' file explains how to get/print the documents. Requests for assistance or documentation should be sent to: DECnet -- NCF::CDFSUPPORT (15578::CDFSUPPORT) Internet -- cdfsupport@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.36.23) If you get the distribution, please send CDFSUPPORT a message so we can put you on our mailing list. That way you will be notified of new releases. The `CHANGES.DOC' file explains the new features of CDF V2.5. Macintosh Installation Instructions ----------------------------------- CDF V2.5 is distributed for Macintosh systems in self-extracting archives (SEAs) created using Compact Pro. When one of these SEAs is executed, one or more files and/or folders will be created in a folder you specify. You do not need Compact Pro to extract the CDF distribution. Each SEA has a file extension of `.sea'. If you transferred the CDF distribution across a network, the files you received are BinHex'ed SEAs (and should have been transferred using ASCII mode - not binary). A BinHex'ed SEA has a file extension of `.sea.hqx'. You must unBinHex each BinHex'ed SEA file before they can be used (which will result in the creation of SEA files having extensions of just `.sea'). The CDF distribution is broken into several parts so that you can install only the parts that you need. To extract the files from a SEA, simply double-click on the SEA file icon. You will prompted for the destination folder in which the extracted files/folders will be placed. This will cause one or more files and new folders (containing additional files) to be created in that folder. You may install the CDF distribution in any folder you wish although it would probably be a good idea to create a new folder in which to install the CDF distribution (specifying this new CDF distribution folder each time you extract from an SEA file). The contents of the SEA files are as follows... cdf25etc.sea Documentation files, online help files, etc. All CDF installations should extract the contents of this SEA. A folder named `help' will be created containing the online help files. cdf25bin.sea Toolkit executables (binaries). If you plan to install the CDF source code and compile/link the entire distribution, you don't need to extract the executables from this file. They will be created when you make the distribution. If you don't plan to extract the source code, extract the executables in this file. A directory named `bin' will be created containing the executables. cdf25pgm.sea CDF libraries and include files used by C and Fortran applications. If you are going to extract the source code and make the distribution yourself, this SEA is not needed. If not, extract the CDF libraries and include files from this SEA. Folders named `lib' and `include' will be created. cdf25sam.sea Sample CDFs, skeleton tables, and application source code. If extracted, a folder named `samples' will be created. cdf25ug.sea The CDF User's Guide. cdf25crm.sea The CDF C Reference Manual. cdf25frm.sea The CDF Fortran Reference Manual. cdf25src.sea Source code for use with Symantec Think C and MPW C and Fortran. This is only needed if you are going to compile/link the distribution with your own compiler. When `cdf25src.sea' is extracted, a folder named `src' will be created containing the following folders... lib include tools tests resources The contents of these folders are described below. NOTE: The source code folder is quite large. Only extract the source code if you really need to. These SEA files are distributed via anonymous FTP or on one or more floppy disks. Each disk should contain this README file in addition to one or more of the SEA files. You can install the parts of the CDF distribution you need in any order you wish. Several of the SEA files are too large to fit on floppy disks having limited capacity. If this is the case, the SEA file will be segmented across two or more floppy disks. Each floppy disk will be labeled appropriately (eg. `1 of 2' and `2 of 2') and will contain the corresponding segment of the SEA. Each SEA segment file has an extension of `.sea.#1', `.sea.#2', etc. To use a segmented SEA, simply double-click on the first segment's icon. That segment may still be on the floppy disk or you could copy it to your hard drive first. You will then be prompted for the locations of the remaining segments. If they are on floppy disks simply eject the current floppy disk and insert the floppy disk containing the next segment. Once all of the segments have been loaded, you will be prompted for a destination folder as described above for a non-segmented SEA. If you are extracting directly from the floppy disks, you will also be prompted to insert the other floppies as needed. ******************************************************************************* * Skip the following section if you do not need to rebuild the entire CDF * * distribution. * ******************************************************************************* If you need to rebuild the CDF distribution, perform the following steps. 1. A number of parameters used to configure the CDF distribution are located in the include file `config.h'. These should be modified (if desired) before rebuilding the CDF distribution. `config.h' is located in the `:src:include' folder. These default parameters affect a number of actions taken by the CDF library and toolkit programs in various situations. The comments in `config.h' describe these default parameters. 2. Makefiles are provided with the source code for MPW C and Fortran. If you are using a different environment/compiler which supports makefiles, new makefiles must first be created (using the existing makefiles as templates). Then compile/link the entire distribution using the "make" utility provided with your environment/compiler. Note that if you don't have a Fortran compiler, you should not specify the targets for the Fortran test programs. The CDF library is in the `:src:lib' folder, the test programs are in the `:src:tests' folder, and the toolkit programs are in the `:src:tools' folder. Project files are provided for Symantec Think C. The CDF library projects must be built before building the test program projects or toolkit program projects. The CDF library is split into five separate projects because of the 32K segment limit. The toolbox projects must also be built before building any of the toolkit programs (eg. CDFedit). 3. Test that the CDF library has been built correctly by executing the test programs (`qst2c', `qst2ic', `qst2f', and `qst2if') for the C Interface and the Fortran Interface (if desired). When each test program executes, it displays what is being tested and any errors detected (but no `test successful' message). 4. Install the library, include files, and toolkit programs into the folders described below. (You could also simply use the CDF distribution from the `src' folder.) At this point you could delete the entire `src' folder tree if you have no further need for the source code. ******************************************************************************* * If you did not rebuild the distribution continue here... * ******************************************************************************* Whether you built the distribution from the source code or simply extracted the library, include files, and toolkit executables, you should now have three folders containing the following files... include cdf.h Include file for C applications. cdf.inc Include file for Fortran applications. lib libcdf.o The CDF library for MPW C and Fortran. libcdf1.# The CDF library (split into five libcdf2.# projects) for Symantec Think C. libcdf3.# The `#'s are actually `pi' symbols... libcdf4.# libcdf5.# bin CDFwalk The toolkit executables... CDFlist CDFedit CDFexport CDFconvert CDFcompare CDFstats CDFinquire SkeletonTable SkeletonCDF The default qualifiers for the CDF toolkit programs are contained in an include file named `config.h'. Each of these default qualifiers can be overridden at the command line when a toolkit program is executed. If you want different default qualifiers you must rebuild the distribution as desribed above (after modifying `config.h'). The CDF User's Guide describes how to use the toolkit executables. The CDF C and Fortran Reference Manuals describe how to use the include files and CDF library with your applications.