@@ -38,17 +38,16 @@ scientific datasets.
3838
3939### Why do we need another library besides the standard reference libraries?
4040
41- Its necessary to have independent implementations of any standard. If you don't have multiple implementations, its
42- easy for the single implementer to mistake the implementation for the actual standard. Its easy to hide problems
41+ It's necessary to have independent implementations of any standard. If you don't have multiple implementations, it's
42+ easy for the single implementer to mistake the implementation for the actual standard. It's easy to hide problems
4343that are actually in the standard by adding work-arounds in the code, instead of documenting problems and creating new
4444versions of the standard with clear fixes. For Netcdf/Hdf, the standard is the file formats, along with their semantic
4545descriptions. The API is language and library specific, and is secondary to the standard.
4646
4747Having multiple implementations is a huge win for the reference library, in that bugs are more quickly found, and
4848ambiguities more quickly identified.
4949
50-
51- ### Whats wrong with the standard reference libraries?
50+ ### What's wrong with the standard reference libraries?
5251
5352The reference libraries are well maintained but complex. They are coded in C, which is a difficult language to master
5453and keep bug free, with implications for memory safety and security. The libraries require various machine and OS dependent
@@ -64,7 +63,7 @@ of programmers, and the need to support legacy APIs.
6463
6564HDF-EOS uses an undocumented "Object Descriptor Language (ODL)" text format, which adds a dependency on the SDP Toolkit
6665and possibly other libraries. These toolkits also provide functionality such as handling projections and coordinate system
67- conversions, and arguably its impossible to process HDF-EOS without them. So the value added here by an independent
66+ conversions, and arguably it's impossible to process HDF-EOS without them. So the value added here by an independent
6867library for data access is less clear. For now, we will provide a "best-effort" to expose the internal
6968contents of the file.
7069
@@ -112,7 +111,7 @@ Our goal is to give read access to all the content in NetCDF, HDF5, HDF4, and HD
112111
113112The library will be thread-safe for reading multiple files concurrently.
114113
115- We are focussing on earth science data, and dont plan to support other uses except as a byproduct.
114+ We are focussing on earth science data, and don't plan to support other uses except as a byproduct.
116115
117116The core module will remain pure Kotlin with very minimal dependencies and no write capabilities. In particular,
118117there will be no dependency on the reference C libraries (except for testing).
@@ -219,7 +218,7 @@ local to the variable they are referenced by.
219218
220219#### Compare with HDF5 data model
221220* Creation order is ignored
222- * We dont include soft (aka symbolic) links in a group, as these point to an existing dataset (variable).
221+ * We don't include soft (aka symbolic) links in a group, as these point to an existing dataset (variable).
223222* Opaque: hdf5 makes arrays of Opaque all the same size, which gives up some of its usefulness. If there's a need,
224223 we will allow Opaque(* ) indicating that the sizes can vary.
225224* Attributes can be of type REFERENCE, with value the full path name of the referenced dataset.
0 commit comments