The current HDF-Java products are available for download at http://www.hdfgroup.org/downloads/

Files included in the release:
/src            -- include all source files
/bin/$platform  -- prebuilt binaries for specific platform (limited platforms)
/hdfview        -- HDFView installation program (limited platforms)

Major changes include supporting HDF5 1.8 features in HDF-Java products, bug fixes, and other enhancements.


HDF libraries
==================================================================================================================
This release was built and tested with HDF 4.2.5 and HDF5 1.8.6.


Platforms
==================================================================================================================
This release was built and tested for the following platforms:

32-bit distribution -- runs on 32-bit systems or 64-bit systems with 32-bit JRE
    * Linux
    * Mac Intel
    * Solaris
    * Windows

64-bit distribution -- runs on 64-bit systems with 64-bit JRE only
    * Linux
    * Mac Intel
    * Solaris
    * Windows


Supporting for HDF5 1.8
==================================================================================================================
    * HDF5 JNI:- Changes to Java HDF5 Interface(JHI5) include:
          -- 101 methods were added to JHI5 to support HDF5 1.8.
          -- Changes were made to 17 methods in JHI5 for supporting the compatibility between HDF5 1.6 and 1.8.
          -- Unit tests were added for all the new methods added to JHI5. 

    * HDF-Java Object Layer:- Changes in the Java HDF Object package include:
          -- Set the bounds of library versions
          -- Set link creation order
          -- Set link storage type
          -- Show groups in creation order
          -- Create soft and external links
          -- Retrieve link information
          -- Show attributes in creation order

    * HDFView:- Changes for supporting HDF5 1.8 in HDFView include:
          -- Set the bounds of library versions of an open file
          -- Show the bounds of library versions of an open file
          -- Set link creation order in groups
          -- Set link storage type when creating a group
          -- Create soft and external links
          -- Show link information


Other Major Improvements
==================================================================================================================  
    * Use H5Ocopy() for copying datasets or groups (important for large datasets)
    * Show the values of specific bit(s) packed in a byte or two-byte integer
    * Show and modify dangling links
    * Rename attributes
    * Show the names of the palettes in HDFView
    * Move objects within the same HDF5 file
    * Export and import data to/from a binary file


Major Bug Fixes
================================================================================================================== 
    * HDFView: cannot copy+paste a 1024^3-64bit-float-dataset.
    * HDFView: problem copying large datasets in HDFView
    * HDFView: image for an unsigned short dataset with a fill value causes an exception
    * HDFView: image displayed incorrectly if you swap dimensions
    * HDFView: displays 3D data incorrectly when rotate dimensions
    * HDFView: export table includes extra TAB separator between values
    * Missing unit tests for H5R package 
    * HDFView: failed to copy large dataset
    * Can't copy/paste large array from Table menu to Excel
    * Make all Java classes portable for 32-bit and 64-bit


Limitations / Known Problems
==================================================================================================================  
    * HDFView does not support undo operations; all changes will go to the physical file, and the editing results 
      cannot be recovered.
    * HDFView does not support conversion between HDF4 and HDF5.
    * HDFView supports only indexed images with RGB color model or 24-bit true color image. It does not support 
      other color models such as CMYK and HSV.
    * Directly using multiple dimensional arrays causes a performance problem because there is no direct mapping 
      for multiple dimensional arrays between Java and C.
    * HDF (4&5) APIs with function pointers are not supported in HDF-Java. 

    * Specific to HDF4:
          -- Deleting an object or attribute from an HDF4 file is not supported. Deleting objects in HDF4 may leave 
             dangling objects or corrupt the file.
          -- HDFView cannot modify compressed HDF4 SDS if rank is greater than two because the existing compression 
             algorithms supported by HDF do not allow partial modification to a compressed data stream.
          -- HDFView cannot modify HDF4 vdata. HDF4 only writes vdata by records while HDF-Java reads data by vdata 
             fields since HDF-Java does not support the data structure of a vdata record.

    * Specific to HDF5:
          -- Writing compound data is limited to simple cases. For example, the base compound fields have primitive 
             types such as integers, floats, characters, etc. HDFView does not write complex compound data. For
             example, the type of a compound field is a dataset region reference.
          -- Writing variable length data is not supported except for datasets where each data point is a single 
             variable length string.
          -- There is no single JNI function that can handle HDF5 library functions that have different return 
             types for version1.6 and version 1.8. An additional function is added in the JNI. For example,
             public synchronized static native int H5Tget_size(int type_id)
             public synchronized static native long H5Tget_size_long(int type_id)

Other notes
==================================================================================================================  
Made the following changes to bin/hdfview.sh, to make it consistent with the Windows batch file, bin/hdfview.bat:
    * changed "HDFVIEW_HOME" to "HDFJAVA" and "JAVAPATH" to "JAVAHOME"
    * FAQs related to HDF-Java products: http://www.hdfgroup.org/hdf5-quest.html#JAVA


