Next: How Format Conversion Operates
Up: INTRODUCTION
Previous: Philosophy
The NDF data access library follows this latter approach by allowing
format conversion utilities to be added to it, thereby allowing it to
access a range of ``foreign'' data (i.e. data which are not
stored in the native NDF format). This has the following advantages:
- The full range of normal NDF data access operations can be
supported - reading, writing, updating, deleting, reshaping, etc.
- Format conversion utilities can be added to already-built
software. Thus you can add the ability to read new data formats to
standard applications, without having to re-build them.
- Format conversion utilities can be written and added by anyone,
so the problem of understanding and accessing a range of different
formats can be shared. Particular problems can be tackled by whoever
best understands them. This makes the NDF library capable of accessing
data in formats completely unknown to its original author.
- Because it is easy to add new format conversion utilities, they
do not always need to be very sophisticated. Instead, they can be
invented or adapted to tackle new problems as they arise. Many of the
difficulties encountered when converting a complicated data format
into another one with a different data model can be ignored, unless
they happen to be relevant to the situation at hand.
The main reason that this approach can be used is because of the
relatively sophisticated formatting possibilities and data model
presented by the NDF library, with its in-built extensibility. This
makes it possible to convert foreign data into NDF format and back
again without losing information, while the opposite process is not
always possible.
Next: How Format Conversion Operates
Up: INTRODUCTION
Previous: Philosophy
Starlink System Note 20
R.F.Warren-Smith & D.S.Berry
17th July 2000
E-mail:ussc@star.rl.ac.uk
Copyright © 2000 Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils