[SciPy-User] HDF4, HDF5, netcdf solutions -- PyNIO/PyNGL or CDAT or ??

[John]

Hello all,

I'm writing to ask what people are generally relying on as a
'toolchain' for reading/writing netcdf and hdf4/5 files. Also perhaps
grib? I would believe that PyNIO could solve most my problems, but
I've always encountered problems building it. I have now tried the
binaries and get a foolish error that it is looking for
libgfortran.so.1, when my system has libgfortran.so.3 (I have no admin
rights). These types of errors / headaches seem to plague me often
when trying to build hdf4 and link it to netcdf, etc. I've encountered
similar challenges when trying to build CDAT from source. I've always
managed to get close, but it seems something in the end causes a hang
up.

I have finally gotten netcdf4-python built, and it seems to work, but
it does not seem to be able to read hdf4 files. I have been able to
read hdf5, however which is terrific.

Mostly, this is a call for comments / thoughts on the tools that are
out there, and what people generally recommend. Perhaps, if anyone has
any pro/con feelings on the investment in learning CDAT vs.
PyNIO/PyNGL, that would also be welcomed.

Regards,
john