How is HDF5 different from a folder with files?

Question

I\'m working on an open source project dealing with adding metadata to folders. The provided (Python) API lets you browse and access metadata like it was just another folder. Be

Answer 1

I'm currently evaluating HDF5 so had the same question.

This article – Moving Away from HDF5 – asks pretty much the same question. The article raises some good points about the fact that there is only a single implementation of the HDF5 library which is developed in relatively opaque circumstances by modern open-source standards.

As you can tell from the title, the authors decided to move away from HDF5, to a filesystem hierarchy of binary files containing arrays with metadata in JSON files. This was in spite having made a significant investment in HDF5, having had their fingers burnt by data corruption and performance issues.