Software I like: Scientific data formats

• CDF from NASA, NetCDF from Unidata, HDF5 from the HDF Group
  • Comparison between netCDF and HDF
  • Comparison between netCDF and CDF
  • Comparisons of CDF vs. netCDF, and CDF vs. HDF
  • Comparison of CDF, HDF and NetCDF (undated, but ‘adapted’ from a 1993 source)
• MINC from BIC at Montréal Neurological Institute, built on NetCDF
• Silo, built on NetCDF, was used by MeshTV (apparently Silo handles irregular meshes, whereas CDF, NetCDF and HDF are designed for regular meshes and require ‘special conventions’ for irregular meshes (Lee et al., 1999))
• XDR