I've been beaten to the punch!?

What also might be worth considering is that this is not a new idea
(NifTi2 == MINC2), this was mooted many moons ago at the various NifTi DFWG meetings.

There are also other advantages to HDF5 (and thus MINC) that are worth considering.

* Don't underestimate the advantages/power of block structured file formats,
on the fly compression for one. (currently bzip in MINC2)

* 'Limitless' header/metadata that can be exported/read/written as
XML thanks to HDF5's XML tools.

* Immunity to byte swapping.

* HDF5/MINC2 has something called an apparent dimension order [1],
this means you can request a volume be loaded or indeed a hyperslab
from a volume in any dimension order you choose. This is achieved via block storage.

* Big files. I have histology reconstructions (from mice) that are approaching 1TB,
things still 'just work' with this sort of approach with little memory footprint and no swapping.

Granted installing HDF5 introduces some pain on some platforms,
(CentOS where be thy HDF5 RPM!?!?!) but for something like ubuntu/debian
this has been packaged for ages.

It might be instructive to look as some of Jason Lerch's excellent tutorials on
MINC2 to give an idea of what can be done with HDF5.

Hyperslabs: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/MINC/Tutori...

There are also a few more here:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/MINC/Tutori...


a

[1] - Apparent dimension order: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/MINC/Refere...