Variable length packet tables

Philipp_Robbel · April 16, 2009, 5:12pm

Hi,

I was wondering why the variable length packet table stuff is #ifdef'd
out from release 1.8.2 (via VLPT_REMOVED). Is it unstable/buggy?

Cheers,
Philipp

···

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epourmal · April 16, 2009, 10:21pm

Hi Philipp,

Initial design supported fixed length and variable length (VL) packets. But since a field in a fixed size packet may have a variable length datatype, VL packets became redundant and were never officially released. H5PTcreate_vl was documented (we write documentation and tests before the code ), but was not removed from the docs.

Please use H5PTcreate_fl function with a variable length field instead. We are updating the documentation. Sorry for misleading you.

Elena

···

On Apr 16, 2009, at 12:12 PM, Philipp Robbel wrote:

Hi,

I was wondering why the variable length packet table stuff is #ifdef'd
out from release 1.8.2 (via VLPT_REMOVED). Is it unstable/buggy?

Cheers,
Philipp

----------------------------------------------------------------------
This mailing list is for HDF software users discussion.
To subscribe to this list, send a message to hdf-forum-subscribe@hdfgroup.org.
To unsubscribe, send a message to hdf-forum-unsubscribe@hdfgroup.org.

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Philipp_Robbel · April 16, 2009, 11:28pm

Hi Elena,

thanks for your quick reply. I'm a bit confused because other functions besides
H5PTcreate_vl are also #ifdef'd out, such as H5PTis_varlen and
H5PTfree_vlen_readbuff. Do we still need to call H5PTfree_vlen_readbuff at the
appropriate times, even when we use H5PTcreate_fl to open it?

Best,
Philipp

···

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 6:21 PM, Elena Pourmal <epourmal@hdfgroup.org> wrote:

Hi Philipp,

Initial design supported fixed length and variable length (VL) packets. But
since a field in a fixed size packet may have a variable length datatype,
VL packets became redundant and were never officially released.
H5PTcreate_vl was documented (we write documentation and tests before the
code ), but was not removed from the docs.

Please use H5PTcreate_fl function with a variable length field instead. We
are updating the documentation. Sorry for misleading you.

Elena

On Apr 16, 2009, at 12:12 PM, Philipp Robbel wrote:

Hi,

I was wondering why the variable length packet table stuff is #ifdef'd
out from release 1.8.2 (via VLPT_REMOVED). Is it unstable/buggy?

Cheers,
Philipp

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This mailing list is for HDF software users discussion.
To subscribe to this list, send a message to
hdf-forum-subscribe@hdfgroup.org.
To unsubscribe, send a message to hdf-forum-unsubscribe@hdfgroup.org.

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epourmal · April 20, 2009, 4:24am

Hi Philipp,

Hi Elena,

thanks for your quick reply. I'm a bit confused because other functions besides
H5PTcreate_vl are also #ifdef'd out, such as H5PTis_varlen and
H5PTfree_vlen_readbuff. Do we still need to call H5PTfree_vlen_readbuff at the
appropriate times, even when we use H5PTcreate_fl to open it?

Thank you for bringing the issue to our attention.

Unfortunately I have to confirm that variable length packet tables are not supported. We don't have tests ( and examples) for variable length fields in packet tables. Please use HDF5 APIs to work with VL datatypes.

We will clean up documentation for the upcoming release. Commented code will stay until we decide how (and if) we support the feature.

Best regards,

Elena

···

On Apr 16, 2009, at 6:28 PM, Philipp Robbel wrote:

Best,
Philipp

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 6:21 PM, Elena Pourmal > <epourmal@hdfgroup.org> wrote:

Hi Philipp,

Initial design supported fixed length and variable length (VL) packets. But
since a field in a fixed size packet may have a variable length datatype,
VL packets became redundant and were never officially released.
H5PTcreate_vl was documented (we write documentation and tests before the
code ), but was not removed from the docs.

Please use H5PTcreate_fl function with a variable length field instead. We
are updating the documentation. Sorry for misleading you.

Elena

On Apr 16, 2009, at 12:12 PM, Philipp Robbel wrote:

Hi,

I was wondering why the variable length packet table stuff is #ifdef'd
out from release 1.8.2 (via VLPT_REMOVED). Is it unstable/buggy?

Cheers,
Philipp

----------------------------------------------------------------------
This mailing list is for HDF software users discussion.
To subscribe to this list, send a message to
hdf-forum-subscribe@hdfgroup.org.
To unsubscribe, send a message to hdf-forum-unsubscribe@hdfgroup.org.

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