csdms
Support grids of rank > 3
Currently, to obtain the nodes of rectilinear, structured quadrilateral, and unstructured grids, the BMI has functions
int get_grid_x(in int grid, in array<double, 1> x);
int get_grid_y(in int grid, in array<double, 1> y);
int get_grid_z(in int grid, in array<double, 1> z);
representing grids of up to three dimensions.
The BMI should also support grids of these types with rank greater than three.
A recent use case: when writing the ERA5 data component, @gantian127 found that the dataset uses 5 dimensions: three spatial + time + an ensemble number.
In https://github.com/csdms/bmi/issues/87#issuecomment-961404327, @mcflugen suggests
int get_grid_node_coordinates(in int grid, in int dim, in array<double, 1> coordinates)
Building on this. we could swap the dim parameter for a name parameter, which might be more readable (e.g., name = "x" or name = "x1" for the first coordinate dimension).
If we make a new function (or functions), it may break backward compatibility with BMI 2.