Mention (provide) some actual test files on the website

[jypeter]

A quick question (but answering may take some time), following a coffee discussion I have with @oliviermarti
this morning : does the CF convention site provide netCDF test/example files?

• There is no mention of test files in the Quick Links section on the home page
• I have searched test in the Latest release page of the documentation: there are 19 occurrences of test, but nothing about test files
• There are more occurrences of example and sample, but the few I have checked did not seem to be example files or sample files
• I have just noticed that there is no mention of CMIP or ESGF in the CF convention, in case someone answers here that people could just grab files from ESGF

The document does provide some example text dumps of netCDF files headers, but having easy access to actual test files could be useful for:

• end user who want to look at actual files following CF, and play with them
• developers who want to check if their tools can handle the CF convention (at least partly)

I have recently started another thread about test files

[JonathanGregory]

Dear @jypeter

Thanks for your posting. Indeed, there are no test files, although the rules have always called for them. Conventions issue #348 raised by @atmodatcode earlier this year is closely related. If you don't mind, I would suggest that this discussion should continue on that issue instead, where I will repost your comment, to avoid duplication.

Best wishes

Jonathan

[jypeter]

Thanks for merging these similar issues