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Changes in version 10.2.0

There are no longer any fixed limits on the numbers of signals or annotation files that can be opened simultaneously, or on the number of samples per signal per frame. In previous versions of the WFDB library, the symbols WFDB_MAXSIG, WFDB_MAXANN, and WFDB_MAXSPF (all defined in `<wfdb/wfdb.h>') specified limits on these parameters that could be modified only by recompiling the WFDB library. These symbols are still defined for compatibility with older applications that use them (typically to determine the size of static arrays).

Since version 10.1.1, record names may include path information (see the notes for version 10.1.1 below), but if such names are used to generate names of WFDB output files, the user has been required to ensure that the target directory exists. This requirement is eliminated in version 10.2.0. If an output file is specified to be located in a non-existent directory, the WFDB library will attempt to create the directory (including, if necessary, any non-existent parent directories). This feature simplifies the use of record names that include directory information, as is common when reading data from a CD-ROM or a web server such as PhysioNet. For example, using the WFDB path (`. http://www.physionet.org/physiobank/database'), if the current directory, `.', does not contain a subdirectory named `mitdb', the command:

 
sqrs -r mitdb/100

will read its input from http://www.physionet.org/physiobank/database/mitdb/, will create a directory named `mitdb' within the current directory, and will write its output annotation file (`100.qrs') into this newly-created directory. If we then use the command:

 
rdann -r mitdb/100 -a qrs

the header file is still read from the remote directory, but the annotation file is read from `./mitdb'. (The programs `sqrs' and `rdann' are standard applications that use the WFDB library; see the WFDB Applications Guide for details.)

Also new is the WFDB test suite (located in the `checkpkg' directory of the WFDB source tree, at the same level as the `lib' directory containing the WFDB library sources). This set of programs can be used to help verify that a newly-installed version of the WFDB library behaves properly.


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George B. Moody (george@mit.edu)