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better documentation required for the _text attribute calls, in C and Fortran #1512

@edhartnett

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@edhartnett

As kindly pointed out by @gsjaardema in #1510, the documentation for the nc_get/put_att_text is confusing. There needs to be a longer discussion of the following:

  • In C, a text string is an array of char, terminated by a NULL.
  • Does the length include the NULL (this is a user choice)
  • What does the API mean by calling these _text?
  • How does this relate to the NetCDF-4 model String type?

Also, this should be clarified not just in the C but also in the Fortran docs.

I think netcdf does a fine job on documentation, but it must be acknowledged that we are programmers and we tend to write as little documentation as we can get away with - sometimes less. This is not a case of just changing a sentence or two, but adding a few paragraphs of explanation.

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