Reading netCDF files using the netCDF API (Application Programming 
Interface) is actually quite easy and will be more efficient than any
shell routine could ever be.  I encourage you to, by all means, give
the API a try, and I`ll give you some quick examples that you can use
as a template.

The simplest case is when you are already familiar with the data in the
file.  In this case, you can skip all the preliminary inquiries and go 
right to reading in whatever subsection you want.  This probably closest
to what your analysis programs are doing now with IEEE or other binary
data files.

      PARAMETER ( NI=96, NJ=80, NK=12, NT=30 )

      REAL    CUBE3D( NI,NJ,NK )

      INTEGER ISTART(4), ICOUNT(4)


C...Get this from "/usr/local/include/netcdf.inc"....
#include "netcdf.inc"
      
      CALL NCPOPT(NCVERBOS+NCFATAL)   ! forces a wordy abort if error
      
      NCFID = NCOPN ( 'filename.nc', NCNOWRIT, IRET )  ! get a file ID
      
      IDV   = NCVID ( NCFID, 'varname', IRET )	        ! get a variable ID

C...Read in a series of 3-D volumes...
      ISTART(1)=1
      ISTART(2)=1	! "ISTART" describes where in the 4-D block to
      ISTART(3)=1	!   start getting data
      ICOUNT(1)=NI
      ICOUNT(2)=NJ	! "ICOUNT" tells how many points to get
      ICOUNT(3)=NK	!   along each of the variables` axes
      ICOUNT(4)=1

      DO IT=1,NT
         ISTART(4) = IT
         CALL NCVGT (NCFID, IDV, ISTART, ICOUNT, CUBE3D, IRET)
C      ...Do something useful with the data....
      ENDDO


Easy, huh?!