[DebianGIS-dev] Bug#537414: Please default to 1.8 interface for hdf5-1.8.x

[Walter Landry]

Greetings,

I was recently bitten by this bug again.  HDF5 has had the new API for
almost 3 years.  This is getting a bit ridiculous.  It is time for
Debian to use the new API.  From

  http://www.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/doc/RM/APICompatMacros.html

  For new code development, The HDF Group recommends use of the
  compatibility macro mapped to the latest version of the function.

Debian is making it impossible to use this compatibility macro.  If
you download HDF5 from the net and build software against it using the
recommended API, it will not then build against the Debian version.

In addition, it seems that there is an easy workaround for people who
want to use the old API, but there is no easy workaround for people
using the new API.

So pretty please, with sugar on top, change the default API.

Thanks,
Walter Landry
wlandry at caltech.edu