[svn-r3344]

Purpose:
    Extracting RELEASE and HISTORY from Changes.html and distributing
    them as separate files will not only leave Changes.html easier to
    read, but will ease maintenance.
Solution:
    Removed the RELEASE and HISTORY files' contents from Changes.html,
        inserting links instead.
    Changes.html now points to RELEASE.txt and HISTORY.txt, duplicates
        of hdf5/RELEASE and hdf5/HISTORY.  These two files will
        henceforth be distributed within the doc set so that this
        information can be available to applications developers who
        cannot access the HDF website (e.g., due to a firewall) and
        are working without the HDF5 source code.
    Affected files: hdf5/doc/html/ADGuide/Changes.html
                    hdf5/doc/html/ADGuide/RELEASE.txt
                    hdf5/doc/html/ADGuide/HISTORY.txt
Platforms tested:
    IE 5

1 files changed, 984 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/doc/html/ADGuide/HISTORY.txt b/doc/html/ADGuide/HISTORY.txt
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+HDF5 HISTORY
+============
+
+CONTENTS
+I.   Release Information for hdf5-1.2.2
+II.  Release Information for hdf5-1.2.1
+III. Release Information for hdf5-1.2.0
+     A. Platforms Supported
+     B. Known Problems
+     C. Changes Since Version 1.0.1  
+        1. Documentation
+        2. Configuration
+        3. Debugging
+        4. Datatypes
+        5. Dataspaces
+        6. Persistent Pointers
+        7. Parallel Support
+        8. New API Functions
+           a. Property List Interface
+           b. Dataset Interface
+           c. Dataspace Interface
+           d. Datatype Interface
+           e. Identifier Interface
+           f. Reference Interface
+           g. Ragged Arrays
+        9. Tools
+
+IV.  Changes from Release 1.0.0 to Release 1.0.1
+V.   Changes from the Beta 1.0.0 Release to Release 1.0.0
+VI.  Changes from the Second Alpha 1.0.0 Release to the Beta 1.0.0 Release
+VII. Changes from the First Alpha 1.0.0 Release to the 
+         Second Alpha 1.0.0 Release
+
+[Search on the string '%%%%' for per-release section breaks.]
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+%%%%1.2.2%%%%   Release Information for hdf5-1.2.2 (6/23/00)
+
+I. Release Information for hdf5-1.2.2
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+This document describes the differences between HDF5-1.2.1 and 
+HDF5-1.2.2, and contains information on the platforms where HDF5-1.2.2
+was tested and known problems in HDF5-1.2.2. 
+
+The HDF5 documentation can be found on the NCSA ftp server 
+(ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu) in the directory:
+
+     /HDF/HDF5/docs/
+
+For more information look at the HDF5 home page at:
+   
+    http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF5/
+
+If you have any questions or comments, please send them to:
+
+    hdfhelp@ncsa.uiuc.edu
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+- Features Added since HDF5-1.2.1 
+- Bug Fixes since HDF5-1.2.1
+- Known Problems
+- Platforms Tested
+
+
+Features Added since HDF5-1.2.1
+===============================
+   * Added internal free-lists to reduce memory required by the library and
+     H5garbage_collect API function.
+   * h5dump displays opaque and bitfield types.
+   * New features added to snapshots.  Use 'snapshot help' to see a
+     complete list of features.
+   * Improved configure to detect if MPIO routines are available when
+     parallel mode is requested.
+
+Bug Fixes since HDF5-1.2.1
+==========================
+   * h5dump correctly displays compound datatypes, including simple and
+     nested compound types.
+   * h5dump correctly displays the committed copy of predefined types.
+   * Corrected an error in h5toh4 which did not convert the 32-bit
+     int from HDF5 to HDF4 correctly for the T3E platform.
+   * Corrected a floating point number conversion error for the
+     Cray J90 platform.  The error did not convert the value 0.0
+     correctly.
+   * Fixed error in H5Giterate which was not updating the "index" parameter
+     correctly.
+   * Fixed error in hyperslab iteration which was not walking through the
+     correct sequence of array elements if hyperslabs were staggered in a
+     certain pattern.
+   * Fixed several other problems in hyperslab iteration code.
+   * Fixed another H5Giterate bug which caused groups with large numbers
+     of objects in them to misbehave when the callback function returned
+     non-zero values.
+   * Changed return type of H5Aiterate and H5A_operator_t typedef to be
+     herr_t, to align them with the dataset and group iterator functions.
+   * Changed H5Screate_simple and H5Sset_extent_simple to not allow dimensions
+     of size 0 without the same dimension being unlimited.
+   * Improved metadata hashing & caching algorithms to avoid
+     many hash flushes and also removed some redundant I/O when moving metadata
+     blocks in the file.
+   * The libhdf5.settings file shows the correct machine byte-sex.
+   * The "struct(opt)" type conversion function which gets invoked for
+     certain compound datatype conversions was fixed for nested compound
+     types. This required a small change in the datatype conversion
+     function API.
+
+Known Problems
+==============
+
+o SunOS 5.6 with C WorkShop Compilers 4.2:  hyperslab selections will 
+  fail if library is compiled using optimization of any level.
+o TFLOPS: dsets test fails if compiled with optimization turned on.
+o J90: tools fail to dispay data for the datasets with a compound datatype. 
+
+Platforms Tested
+================
+
+  AIX 4.3.3 (IBM SP)            3.6.6                               | binaries
+                                mpicc using mpich 1.1.2             | are not
+                                mpicc_r using IBM MPI-IO prototype  | available
+  AIX 4.3.2.0 (IBM SP)          xlc 5.0.1.0
+  Cray J90 10.0.0.7             cc 6.3.0.2
+  Cray T3E 2.0.5.29             cc 6.3.0.2
+                                mpt.1.3
+  FreeBSD 4.0                   gcc 2.95.2
+  HP-UX B.10.20                 HP C  HP92453-01 A.10.32
+  HP-UX B.11.00                 HP92453-01 A.11.00.13 HP C Compiler 
+                                (static library only, h5toh4 tool is not available) 
+  IRIX 6.5                      MIPSpro cc 7.30
+  IRIX64 6.5 (64 & n32)         MIPSpro cc 7.3.1m
+                                mpt.1.4
+
+  Linux 2.2.10 SMP              gcc 2.95.1 
+                                mpicc(gcc-2.95.1)
+                                gcc (egcs-2.91.66)
+                                mpicc (egcs-2.91.66)
+  Linux 2.2.16 (RedHat 6.2)     gcc 2.95.2
+
+  OSF1 V4.0                     DEC-V5.2-040
+  SunOS 5.6                     cc WorkShop Compilers 5.0 no optimization
+  SunOS 5.7                     cc WorkShop Compilers 5.0
+  SolarisX86 SunOS 5.5.1        gcc version 2.7.2 with --disable-hsizet
+  TFLOPS 3.2.1                  pgcc Rel 3.1-3i
+                                mpich-1.1.2 with local changes
+  Windows NT4.0 sp5             MSVC++ 6.0
+  Windows 98                    MSVC++ 6.0
+  Windows 2000                  MSVC++ 6.0
+
+
+
+%%%%1.2.1%%%%   Release Information for hdf5-1.2.1
+
+II. Release Information for hdf5-1.2.1
+
+Bug fixes since HDF5-1.2.0
+==========================
+
+Configuration
+-------------
+
+   * The hdf5.h include file was fixed to allow the HDF5 Library to be compiled
+     with other libraries/applications that use GNU autoconf. 
+   * Configuration for parallel HDF5 was improved. Configure now attempts to
+     link with libmpi.a and/or libmpio.a as the MPI libraries by default.
+     It also uses "mpirun" to launch MPI tests by default.  It tests to
+     link MPIO routines during the configuration stage, rather than failing
+     later as before.  One can just do "./configure --enable-parallel"
+     if the MPI library is in the system library.
+
+Library
+-------
+
+   * Error was fixed which was not allowing dataset region references to have
+     their regions retrieved correctly.
+   * Added internal free-lists to reduce memory required by the library and
+     H5garbage_collect API function
+   * Fixed error in H5Giterate which was not updating the "index" parameter
+     correctly.
+   * Fixed error in hyperslab iteration which was not walking through the
+     correct sequence of array elements if hyperslabs were staggered in a
+     certain pattern
+   * Fixed several other problems in hyperslab iteration code.
+
+Tests
+------
+
+   * Added additional tests for group and attribute iteration.
+   * Added additional test for staggered hyperslab iteration.
+   * Added additional test for random 5-D hyperslab selection.
+
+Tools
+------
+
+   * Added an option, -V, to show the version information of h5dump.
+   * Fixed a core dumping bug of h5toh4 when executed on platforms like 
+     TFLOPS.
+   * The test script for h5toh4 used to not able to detect the hdp
+     dumper command was not valid.  It now detects and reports the
+     failure of hdp execution.
+
+Documentation
+-------------
+
+   * User's Guide and Reference Manual were updated. 
+     See doc/html/PSandPDF/index.html for more details. 
+
+   
+Platforms Tested:
+================
+Note: Due to the nature of bug fixes, only static versions of the library and tools were tested.
+
+
+  AIX 4.3.2 (IBM SP)            3.6.6
+  Cray T3E 2.0.4.81             cc 6.3.0.1
+                                mpt.1.3
+  FreeBSD 3.3-STABLE            gcc 2.95.2
+  HP-UX B.10.20                 HP C  HP92453-01 A.10.32
+  IRIX 6.5                      MIPSpro cc 7.30
+  IRIX64 6.5 (64 & n32)         MIPSpro cc 7.3.1m
+                                mpt.1.3 (SGI MPI 3.2.0.0)
+
+  Linux 2.2.10 SuSE             egcs-2.91.66               configured with
+  (i686-pc-linux-gnu)                                      --disable-hsizet
+                                mpich-1.2.0 egcs-2.91.66 19990314/Linux 
+
+  OSF1 V4.0                     DEC-V5.2-040
+  SunOS 5.6                     cc WorkShop Compilers 4.2  no optimization
+  SunOS 5.7                     cc WorkShop Compilers 5.0
+  TFLOPS 2.8                    cicc (pgcc Rel 3.0-5i)
+                                mpich-1.1.2 with local changes
+  Windows NT4.0 sp5             MSVC++ 6.0
+
+Known Problems:
+==============
+
+o SunOS 5.6 with C WorkShop Compilers 4.2:  Hyperslab selections will 
+  fail if library is compiled using optimization of any level.
+
+
+
+%%%%1.2.0%%%%   Release Information for hdf5-1.2.0
+         
+III. Release Information for hdf5-1.2.0
+
+A. Platforms Supported
+   -------------------
+
+Operating systems listed below with compiler information and MPI library, if
+applicable, are systems that HDF5 1.2.0 was tested on.
+
+                           Compiler & libraries
+  Platform                      Information              Comment
+  --------                      ----------               -------- 
+                                
+  AIX 4.3.2 (IBM SP)            3.6.6
+
+  Cray J90 10.0.0.6             cc 6.3.0.0
+
+  Cray T3E 2.0.4.61             cc 6.2.1.0 
+                                mpt.1.3
+
+  FreeBSD 3.2                   gcc 2.95.1
+
+  HP-UX B.10.20                 HP C  HP92453-01 A.10.32
+                                gcc 2.8.1
+
+  IRIX 6.5                      MIPSpro cc 7.30 
+
+  IRIX64 6.5 (64 & n32)         MIPSpro cc 7.3.1m
+  			        mpt.1.3 (SGI MPI 3.2.0.0)
+
+  Linux 2.2.10                  egcs-2.91.66               configured with
+  						         --disable-hsizet
+                                                           lbraries: glibc2
+
+  OSF1 V4.0                     DEC-V5.2-040
+
+  SunOS 5.6                     cc WorkShop Compilers 4.2   
+                                                           no optimization
+  			        gcc 2.8.1
+
+  SunOS 5.7                     cc WorkShop Compilers 5.0
+                                gcc 2.8.1
+ 
+  TFLOPS 2.7.1                  cicc (pgcc Rel 3.0-4i)
+  			        mpich-1.1.2 with local changes
+
+  Windows NT4.0 intel           MSVC++ 5.0 and 6.0
+
+  Windows NT alpha 4.0          MSVC++ 5.0 
+
+  Windows 98                    MSVC++ 5.0
+
+
+B. Known Problems
+   --------------
+
+* NT alpha 4.0
+  Dumper utiliy h5dump fails if linked with DLL.
+
+* SunOS 5.6 with C WorkShop Compilers 4.2
+  Hyperslab selections will fail if library is compiled using optimization
+  of any level.
+
+ 
+C. Changes Since Version 1.0.1
+   ---------------------------
+
+1. Documentation
+   -------------
+
+* More examples
+
+* Updated user guide, reference manual, and format specification.
+
+* Self-contained documentation for installations isolated from the
+  Internet.
+
+* HDF5 Tutorial was added to the documentation  
+
+2. Configuration
+   -------------
+
+* Better detection and support for MPI-IO.
+
+* Recognition of compilers with known code generation problems.
+
+* Support for various compilers on a single architecture (e.g., the
+  native compiler and the GNU compilers).
+
+* Ability to build from read-only media and with different compilers
+  and/or options concurrently.
+
+* Added a libhdf5.settings file which summarizes the configuration
+  information and is installed along with the library.
+
+* Builds a shared library on most systems that support it.
+
+* Support for Cray T3E, J90 and Windows/NT.
+
+3. Debugging
+   ---------
+
+* Improved control and redirection of debugging and tracing messages.
+
+4. Datatypes
+   ---------
+
+* Optimizations to compound datatype conversions and I/O operations.
+
+* Added nearly 100 optimized conversion functions for native datatypes 
+  including support for non-aligned data.
+
+* Added support for bitfield, opaque, and enumeration types.
+
+* Added distinctions between signed and unsigned char types to the
+  list of predefined native hdf5 datatypes.
+
+* Added HDF5 type definitions for C9x types like int32_t.
+
+* Application-defined type conversion functions can handle non-packed
+  data.
+
+* Changed the H5Tunregister() function to use wildcards when matching
+  conversion functions.  H5Tregister_hard() and H5Tregister_soft()
+  were combined into H5Tregister().
+
+* Support for variable-length datatypes (arrays of varying length per
+  dataset element). Variable length strings currently supported only
+  as variable length arrays of 1-byte integers.
+
+5. Dataspaces
+   ----------
+
+* New query functions for selections.
+
+* I/O operations bypass the stripmining loop and go directly to
+  storage for certain contiguous selections in the absense of type
+  conversions.  In other cases the stripmining buffers are used more
+  effectively.
+
+* Reduced the number of I/O requests under certain circumstances,
+  improving performance on systems with high I/O latency.
+
+6. Persistent Pointers
+   -------------------
+
+* Object (serial and parallel) and dataset region (serial only)
+  references are implemented.
+
+7. Parallel Support
+   ----------------
+
+* Improved parallel I/O performance.
+
+* Supported new platforms: Cray T3E, Linux, DEC Cluster.
+
+* Use vendor supported version of MPIO on SGI O2K and Cray platforms.
+
+* Improved the algorithm that translates an HDF5 hyperslab selection
+  into an MPI type for better collective I/O performance.
+
+8. New API functions 
+   -----------------
+
+  a. Property List Interface:
+     ------------------------
+
+  H5Pset_xfer		- set data transfer properties
+  H5Pset_preserve      - set dataset transfer property list status 
+  H5Pget_preserve      - get dataset transfer property list status
+  H5Pset_hyper_cache   - indicates whether to cache hyperslab blocks during I/O
+  H5Pget_hyper_cache   - returns information regarding the caching of 
+                         hyperslab blocks during I/O
+  H5Pget_btree_ratios  - sets B-tree split ratios for a dataset 
+                         transfer property list
+  H5Pset_btree_ratios  - gets B-tree split ratios for a dataset
+                         transfer property list
+  H5Pset_vlen_mem_manager - sets the memory manager for variable-length 
+                            datatype allocation
+  H5Pget_vlen_mem_manager - sets the memory manager for variable-length
+                            datatype allocation
+
+  b. Dataset Interface:
+     ------------------
+
+  H5Diterate           - iterate over all selected elements in a dataspace
+  H5Dget_storage_size  - return the amount of storage required for a dataset
+  H5Dvlen_reclaim      - reclaim VL datatype memory buffers
+
+  c. Dataspace Interface:
+     --------------------
+  H5Sget_select_hyper_nblocks   - get number of hyperslab blocks
+  H5Sget_select_hyper_blocklist - get the list of hyperslab blocks 
+                                  currently selected
+  H5Sget_select_elem_npoints    - get the number of element points 
+                                  in the current selection
+  H5Sget_select_elem_pointlist  - get the list of element points 
+                                  currently selected
+  H5Sget_select_bounds          - gets the bounding box containing 
+                                  the current selection
+
+  d. Datatype Interface:
+     -------------------
+  H5Tget_super         - return the base datatype from which a 
+                         datatype is derived
+  H5Tvlen_create       - creates a new variable-length dataype
+  H5Tenum_create       - creates a new enumeration datatype
+  H5Tenum_insert       - inserts a new enumeration datatype member
+  H5Tenum_nameof       - returns the symbol name corresponding to a 
+                         specified member of an enumeration datatype
+  H5Tvalueof           - return the value corresponding to a 
+                         specified member of an enumeration datatype 
+  H5Tget_member_value  - return the value of an enumeration datatype member
+  H5Tset_tag           - tags an opaque datatype
+  H5Tget_tag           - gets the tag associated with an opaque datatype
+
+  e. Identifier Interface:
+     ---------------------
+  H5Iget_type          - retrieve the type of an object
+
+  f. Reference Interface:
+     --------------------
+  H5Rcreate            - creates a reference
+  H5Rdereference       - open the HDF5 object referenced
+  H5Rget_region        - retrieve a dataspace with the specified region selected
+  H5Rget_object_type   - retrieve the type of object that an 
+                         object reference points to
+
+  g. Ragged Arrays (alpha) (names of those API functions were changed):
+     ------------------------------------------------------------------
+   H5RAcreate		- create a new ragged array (old name was H5Rcreate)
+   H5RAopen		- open an existing array    (old name was H5Ropen)
+   H5RAclose		- close a ragged array      (old name was H5Rclose)
+   H5RAwrite		- write to an array         (old name was H5Rwrite)
+   H5RAread		- read from an array        (old name was H5Rread)
+
+
+9. Tools
+   -----
+
+* Enhancements to the h5ls tool including the ability to list objects
+  from more than one file, to display raw hexadecimal data, to
+  show file addresses for raw data, to format output more reasonably,
+  to show object attributes, and to perform a recursive listing, 
+
+* Enhancements to h5dump: support new data types added since previous
+  versions.
+
+* h5toh4: An hdf5 to hdf4 converter.
+
+
+
+%%%%1.0.1%%%%   Release Information for hdf5-1.0.1
+         
+IV. Changes from Release 1.0.0 to Release 1.0.1
+
+* [Improvement]: configure sets up the Makefile in the parallel tests
+  suit (testpar/) correctly.
+
+* [Bug-Fix]: Configure failed for all IRIX versions other than 6.3.
+  It now configures correctly for all IRIX 6.x version.
+
+* Released Parallel HDF5 
+
+     Supported Features:
+     ------------------
+
+     HDF5 files are accessed according to the communicator and INFO
+     object defined in the property list set by H5Pset_mpi.
+
+     Independent read and write accesses to fixed and extendable dimension
+     datasets.
+
+     Collective read and write accesses to fixed dimension datasets.
+
+     Supported Platforms:
+     -------------------
+
+     Intel Red
+     IBM SP2
+     SGI Origin 2000
+
+     Changes In This Release: 
+     -----------------------
+
+   o Support of Access to Extendable Dimension Datasets.
+     Extendable dimension datasets must use chunked storage methods.
+     A new function, H5Dextend, is created to extend the current
+     dimensions of a dataset.  The current release requires the
+     MPI application must make a collective call to extend the
+     dimensions of an extendable dataset before writing to the
+     newly extended area.  (The serial does not require the
+     call of H5Dextend.  The dimensions of an extendable
+     dataset is increased when data is written to beyond the
+     current dimensions but within the maximum dimensions.)
+     The required collective call of H5Dextend may be relaxed
+     in future release.
+
+     This release only support independent read and write accesses
+     to extendable datasets.  Collective accesses to extendable
+     datasets will be implemented in future releases.
+
+   o Collective access to fixed dimension datasets.
+     Collective access to a dataset can be specified in the transfer
+     property list argument in H5Dread and H5Dwrite.  The current
+     release supports collective access to fixed dimension datasets.
+     Collective access to extendable datasets will be implemented in
+     future releases.
+
+   o HDF5 files are opened according to Communicator and INFO object.
+     H5Dopen now records the communicator and INFO setup by H5Pset_mmpi
+     and pass them to the corresponding MPIO open file calls for
+     processing.
+
+   o This release has been tested on IBM SP2, Intel Red and SGI Origin 2000
+     systems.  It uses the ROMIO version of MPIO interface for parallel
+     I/O supports.
+
+
+
+%%%%1.0.0%%%%   Release Information for hdf5-1.0.0
+
+V. Changes from the Beta 1.0.0 Release to Release 1.0.0
+
+* Added fill values for datasets.  For contiguous datasets fill value
+  performance may be quite poor since the fill value is written to the 
+  entire dataset when the dataset is created.  This will be remedied
+  in a future version.  Chunked datasets using fill values do not
+  incur any additional overhead. See H5Pset_fill_value().
+
+* Multiple hdf5 files can be "mounted" on one another to create a
+  larger virtual file. See H5Fmount().
+
+* Object names can be removed or changed but objects are never
+  actually removed from the file yet. See H5Gunlink() and H5Gmove().
+
+* Added a tuning mechanism for B-trees to insure that sequential
+  writes to chunked datasets use less overhead.  See H5Pset_btree_ratios().
+
+* Various optimizations and bug fixes.
+
+
+
+%%%%1.0.0 Beta%%%%   Release Information for hdf5-1.0.0 Beta
+
+VI. Changes from the Second Alpha 1.0.0 Release to the Beta 1.0.0 Release
+
+* Strided hyperslab selections in dataspaces now working.
+
+* The compression API has been replaced with a more general filter
+  API.  See doc/html/Filters.html for details.
+
+* Alpha-quality 2d ragged arrays are implemented as a layer built on
+  top of other hdf5 objects.  The API and storage format will almost
+  certainly change.
+
+* More debugging support including API tracing.  See Debugging.html.
+
+* C and Fortran style 8-bit fixed-length character string types are
+  supported with space or null padding or null termination and
+  translations between them.
+
+* Added function H5Fflush() to write all cached data immediately to
+  the file.
+
+* Datasets maintain a modification time which can be retrieved with
+  H5Gstat().
+
+* The h5ls tool can display much more information, including all the
+  values of a dataset.
+
+
+
+%%%%1.0.0 Alpha 2%%%%   Release Information for hdf5-1.0.0 Alpha 2
+
+VII. Changes from the First Alpha 1.0.0 Release to 
+     the Second Alpha 1.0.0 Release
+
+* Two of the packages have been renamed.  The data space API has been
+  renamed from `H5P' to `H5S' and the property list (template) API has 
+  been renamed from `H5C' to `H5P'.
+
+* The new attribute API `H5A' has been added.  An attribute is a small 
+  dataset which can be attached to some other object (for instance, a
+  4x4 transformation matrix attached to a 3-dimensional dataset, or an 
+  English abstract attached to a group).
+
+* The error handling API `H5E' has been completed.  By default, when an
+  API function returns failure an error stack is displayed on the
+  standard error stream.  The H5Eset_auto() controls the automatic
+  printing and H5E_BEGIN_TRY/H5E_END_TRY macros can temporarily
+  disable the automatic error printing.
+
+* Support for large files and datasets (>2GB) has been added.  There
+  is an html document that describes how it works.  Some of the types
+  for function arguments have changed to support this: all arguments
+  pertaining to sizes of memory objects are `size_t' and all arguments 
+  pertaining to file sizes are `hsize_t'.
+
+* More data type conversions have been added although none of them are
+  fine tuned for performance.  There are new converters from integer
+  to integer and float to float, but not between integers and floating
+  points.  A bug has been fixed in the converter between compound
+  types.
+
+* The numbered types have been removed from the API: int8, uint8,
+  int16, uint16, int32, uint32, int64, uint64, float32, and float64.
+  Use standard C types instead.  Similarly, the numbered types were
+  removed from the H5T_NATIVE_* architecture; use unnumbered types
+  which correspond to the standard C types like H5T_NATIVE_INT.
+
+* More debugging support was added.  If tracing is enabled at
+  configuration time (the default) and the HDF5_TRACE environment
+  variable is set to a file descriptor then all API calls will emit
+  the function name, argument names and values, and return value on
+  that file number.  There is an html document that describes this.
+  If appropriate debugging options are enabled at configuration time,
+  some packages will display performance information on stderr.
+
+* Data types can be stored in the file as independent objects and
+  multiple datasets can share a data type.
+
+* The raw data I/O stream has been implemented and the application can 
+  control meta and raw data caches, so I/O performance should be
+  improved from the first alpha release.
+
+* Group and attribute query functions have been implemented so it is
+  now possible to find out the contents of a file with no prior
+  knowledge.
+
+* External raw data storage allows datasets to be written by other
+  applications or I/O libraries and described and accessed through
+  HDF5.
+
+* Hard and soft (symbolic) links are implemented which allow groups to 
+  share objects. Dangling and recursive symbolic links are supported.
+
+* User-defined data compression is implemented although we may
+  generalize the interface to allow arbitrary user-defined filters
+  which can be used for compression, checksums, encryption,
+  performance monitoring, etc.  The publicly-available `deflate'
+  method is predefined if the GNU libz.a can be found at configuration 
+  time.
+
+* The configuration scripts have been modified to make it easier to
+  build debugging vs. production versions of the library.
+
+* The library automatically checks that the application was compiled
+  with the correct version of header files.
+
+
+		    Parallel HDF5 Changes
+
+* Parallel support for fixed dimension datasets with contiguous or
+  chunked storages.  Also, support unlimited dimension datasets which
+  must use chunk storage.  No parallel support for compressed datasets.
+
+* Collective data transfer for H5Dread/H5Dwrite.  Collective access
+  support for datasets with contiguous storage only, thus only fixed
+  dimension datasets for now.
+
+* H5Pset_mpi and H5Pget_mpi no longer have the access_mode
+  argument.  It is taken over by the data-transfer property list
+  of H5Dread/H5Dwrite.
+
+* New functions H5Pset_xfer and H5Pget_xfer to handle the
+  specification of independent or collective data transfer_mode
+  in the dataset transfer properties list.  The properties
+  list can be used to specify data transfer mode in the H5Dwrite
+  and H5Dread function calls.
+
+* Added parallel support for datasets with chunked storage layout.
+  When a dataset is extend in a PHDF5 file, all processes that open
+  the file must collectively call H5Dextend with identical new dimension
+  sizes.
+
+
+			LIST OF API FUNCTIONS
+
+The following functions are implemented. Errors are returned if an
+attempt is made to use some feature which is not implemented and
+printing the error stack will show `not implemented yet'.
+
+Library
+   H5check		- check that lib version matches header version
+   H5open		- initialize library (happens automatically)
+   H5close		- shut down the library (happens automatically)
+   H5dont_atexit	- don't call H5close on exit
+   H5get_libversion	- retrieve library version info
+   H5check_version	- check for specific library version
+
+Property Lists
+   H5Pclose		- release template resources
+   H5Pcopy		- copy a template
+   H5Pcreate		- create a new template
+   H5Pget_chunk		- get chunked storage properties
+   H5Pset_chunk		- set chunked storage properties
+   H5Pget_class		- get template class
+   H5Pget_istore_k	- get chunked storage properties
+   H5Pset_istore_k	- set chunked storage properties
+   H5Pget_layout	- get raw data layout class
+   H5Pset_layout	- set raw data layout class
+   H5Pget_sizes		- get address and size sizes
+   H5Pset_sizes		- set address and size sizes
+   H5Pget_sym_k		- get symbol table storage properties
+   H5Pset_sym_k		- set symbol table storage properties
+   H5Pget_userblock	- get user-block size
+   H5Pset_userblock	- set user-block size
+   H5Pget_version	- get file version numbers
+   H5Pget_alignment	- get data alignment properties
+   H5Pset_alignment	- set data alignment properties
+   H5Pget_external_count- get count of external data files
+   H5Pget_external	- get information about an external data file
+   H5Pset_external	- add a new external data file to the list
+   H5Pget_driver	- get low-level file driver class
+   H5Pget_stdio		- get properties for stdio low-level driver
+   H5Pset_stdio		- set properties for stdio low-level driver
+   H5Pget_sec2		- get properties for sec2 low-level driver
+   H5Pset_sec2		- set properties for sec2 low-level driver
+   H5Pget_core		- get properties for core low-level driver
+   H5Pset_core		- set properties for core low-level driver
+   H5Pget_split		- get properties for split low-level driver
+   H5Pset_split		- set properties for split low-level driver
+   H5P_get_family	- get properties for family low-level driver
+   H5P_set_family	- set properties for family low-level driver
+   H5Pget_cache		- get meta- and raw-data caching properties
+   H5Pset_cache		- set meta- and raw-data caching properties
+   H5Pget_buffer	- get raw-data I/O pipe buffer properties
+   H5Pset_buffer	- set raw-data I/O pipe buffer properties
+   H5Pget_preserve	- get type conversion preservation properties
+   H5Pset_preserve	- set type conversion preservation properties
+   H5Pget_nfilters	- get number of raw data filters
+   H5Pget_filter	- get raw data filter properties
+   H5Pset_filter	- set raw data filter properties
+   H5Pset_deflate	- set deflate compression filter properties
+   H5Pget_mpi		- get MPI-IO properties
+   H5Pset_mpi		- set MPI-IO properties
+   H5Pget_xfer		- get data transfer properties
+ + H5Pset_xfer		- set data transfer properties
+ + H5Pset_preserve      - set dataset transfer property list status 
+ + H5Pget_preserve      - get dataset transfer property list status
+ + H5Pset_hyper_cache   - indicates whether to cache hyperslab blocks during I/O
+ + H5Pget_hyper_cache   - returns information regarding the caching of 
+                          hyperslab blocks during I/O
+ + H5Pget_btree_ratios  - sets B-tree split ratios for a dataset 
+                          transfer property list
+ + H5Pset_btree_ratios  - gets B-tree split ratios for a dataset
+                          transfer property list
+ + H5Pset_vlen_mem_manager - sets the memory manager for variable-length 
+                             datatype allocation
+ + H5Pget_vlen_mem_manager - sets the memory manager for variable-length
+                             datatype allocation
+
+Datasets
+   H5Dclose		- release dataset resources
+   H5Dcreate		- create a new dataset
+   H5Dget_space		- get data space
+   H5Dget_type		- get data type
+   H5Dget_create_plist	- get dataset creation properties
+   H5Dopen		- open an existing dataset
+   H5Dread		- read raw data
+   H5Dwrite		- write raw data
+   H5Dextend		- extend a dataset
+ + H5Diterate           - iterate over all selected elements in a dataspace
+ + H5Dget_storage_size  - return the amount of storage required for a dataset
+ + H5Dvlen_reclaim      - reclaim VL datatype memory buffers
+
+Attributes
+   H5Acreate		- create a new attribute
+   H5Aopen_name		- open an attribute by name
+   H5Aopen_idx		- open an attribute by number
+   H5Awrite		- write values into an attribute
+   H5Aread		- read values from an attribute
+   H5Aget_space		- get attribute data space
+   H5Aget_type		- get attribute data type
+   H5Aget_name		- get attribute name
+   H5Anum_attrs		- return the number of attributes for an object
+   H5Aiterate		- iterate over an object's attributes
+   H5Adelete		- delete an attribute
+   H5Aclose		- close an attribute
+
+Errors
+   H5Eclear		- clear the error stack
+   H5Eprint		- print an error stack
+   H5Eget_auto		- get automatic error reporting settings
+   H5Eset_auto		- set automatic error reporting
+   H5Ewalk		- iterate over the error stack
+   H5Ewalk_cb		- the default error stack iterator function
+   H5Eget_major		- get the message for the major error number
+   H5Eget_minor		- get the message for the minor error number
+
+Files
+   H5Fclose		- close a file and release resources
+   H5Fcreate		- create a new file
+   H5Fget_create_plist	- get file creation property list
+   H5Fget_access_plist	- get file access property list
+   H5Fis_hdf5		- determine if a file is an hdf5 file
+   H5Fopen		- open an existing file
+   H5Freopen            - reopen an HDF5 file
+   H5Fmount             - mount a file
+   H5Funmount           - unmount a file
+   H5Fflush             - flush all buffers associated with a file to disk
+
+Groups
+   H5Gclose		- close a group and release resources
+   H5Gcreate    	- create a new group
+   H5Gopen		- open an existing group
+   H5Giterate   	- iterate over the contents of a group
+   H5Gmove		- change the name of some object
+   H5Glink		- create a hard or soft link to an object
+   H5Gunlink    	- break the link between a name and an object
+   H5Gget_objinfo	- get information about a group entry
+   H5Gget_linkval	- get the value of a soft link
+   H5Gget_comment	- get the comment string for an object
+   H5Gset_comment	- set the comment string for an object
+
+Dataspaces
+   H5Screate	        - create a new data space
+   H5Scopy		- copy a data space
+   H5Sclose		- release data space
+   H5Screate_simple	- create a new simple data space
+   H5Sset_space		- set simple data space extents
+   H5Sis_simple		- determine if data space is simple
+   H5Sset_extent_simple	- set simple data space dimensionality and size
+   H5Sget_simple_extent_npoints	- get number of points in simple extent
+   H5Sget_simple_extent_ndims - get simple data space dimensionality
+   H5Sget_simple_extent_dims - get simple data space size
+   H5Sget_simple_extent_type - get type of simple extent
+   H5Sset_extent_none	- reset extent to be empty
+   H5Sextent_copy	- copy the extent from one data space to another
+   H5Sget_select_npoints - get number of points selected for I/O
+   H5Sselect_hyperslab	- set hyperslab dataspace selection
+   H5Sselect_elements   - set element sequence dataspace selection
+   H5Sselect_all	- select entire extent for I/O
+   H5Sselect_none	- deselect all elements of extent
+   H5Soffset_simple	- set selection offset
+   H5Sselect_valid	- determine if selection is valid for extent
+ + H5Sget_select_hyper_nblocks   - get number of hyperslab blocks
+ + H5Sget_select_hyper_blocklist - get the list of hyperslab blocks 
+                                   currently selected
+ + H5Sget_select_elem_npoints    - get the number of element points 
+                                   in the current selection
+ + H5Sget_select_elem_pointlist  - get the list of element points 
+                                   currently selected
+ + H5Sget_select_bounds          - gets the bounding box containing 
+                                   the current selection
+
+Datatypes
+   H5Tclose		- release data type resources
+   H5Topen		- open a named data type
+   H5Tcommit		- name a data type
+   H5Tcommitted		- determine if a type is named
+   H5Tcopy		- copy a data type
+   H5Tcreate		- create a new data type
+   H5Tequal		- compare two data types
+   H5Tlock		- lock type to prevent changes
+   H5Tfind		- find a data type conversion function
+   H5Tconvert		- convert data from one type to another
+   H5Tregister    	- register a conversion function
+   H5Tunregister	- remove a conversion function
+   H5Tget_overflow	- get function that handles overflow conv. cases
+   H5Tset_overflow	- set function to handle overflow conversion cases
+   H5Tget_class		- get data type class
+   H5Tget_cset		- get character set
+   H5Tget_ebias		- get exponent bias
+   H5Tget_fields	- get floating point fields
+   H5Tget_inpad		- get inter-field padding
+   H5Tget_member_dims	- get struct member dimensions
+   H5Tget_member_name	- get struct member name
+   H5Tget_member_offset	- get struct member byte offset
+   H5Tget_member_type	- get struct member type
+   H5Tget_nmembers	- get number of struct members
+   H5Tget_norm		- get floating point normalization
+   H5Tget_offset	- get bit offset within type
+   H5Tget_order		- get byte order
+   H5Tget_pad		- get padding type
+   H5Tget_precision	- get precision in bits
+   H5Tget_sign		- get integer sign type
+   H5Tget_size		- get size in bytes
+   H5Tget_strpad	- get string padding
+   H5Tinsert		- insert scalar struct member
+   H5Tinsert_array	- insert array struct member
+   H5Tpack		- pack struct members
+   H5Tset_cset		- set character set
+   H5Tset_ebias		- set exponent bias
+   H5Tset_fields	- set floating point fields
+   H5Tset_inpad		- set inter-field padding
+   H5Tset_norm		- set floating point normalization
+   H5Tset_offset	- set bit offset within type
+   H5Tset_order		- set byte order
+   H5Tset_pad		- set padding type
+   H5Tset_precision	- set precision in bits
+   H5Tset_sign		- set integer sign type
+   H5Tset_size		- set size in bytes
+   H5Tset_strpad	- set string padding
+ + H5Tget_super         - return the base datatype from which a 
+                          datatype is derived
+ + H5Tvlen_create       - creates a new variable-length dataype
+ + H5Tenum_create       - creates a new enumeration datatype
+ + H5Tenum_insert       - inserts a new enumeration datatype member
+ + H5Tenum_nameof       - returns the symbol name corresponding to a 
+                          specified member of an enumeration datatype
+ + H5Tvalueof           - return the value corresponding to a 
+                          specified member of an enumeration datatype 
+ + H5Tget_member_value  - return the value of an enumeration datatype member
+ + H5Tset_tag           - tags an opaque datatype
+ + H5Tget_tag           - gets the tag associated with an opaque datatype
+
+ - H5Tregister_hard	- register specific type conversion function
+ - H5Tregister_soft	- register general type conversion function
+
+Filters
+   H5Tregister		- register a conversion function 
+
+Compression
+   H5Zregister		- register new compression and uncompression 
+                          functions for a method specified by a method number
+
+Identifiers
+ + H5Iget_type          - retrieve the type of an object
+
+References
+ + H5Rcreate            - creates a reference
+ + H5Rdereference       - open the HDF5 object referenced
+ + H5Rget_region        - retrieve a dataspace with the specified region selected
+ + H5Rget_object_type   - retrieve the type of object that an 
+                          object reference points to
+
+Ragged Arrays (alpha)
+   H5RAcreate		- create a new ragged array
+   H5RAopen		- open an existing array
+   H5RAclose		- close a ragged array
+   H5RAwrite		- write to an array
+   H5RAread		- read from an array
+
+