My current thinking is something like:
recarrDescr = { "name" : defineType(CharType, 16, ""), # 16-character String "TDCcount" : defineType(UInt8, 1, 0), # unsigned byte "ADCcount" : defineType(Int16, 1, 0), # signed short integer "grid_i" : defineType(Int32, 1, 9), # integer "grid_j" : defineType(Int32, 1, 9), # integer "pressure" : defineType(Float32, 1, 1.), # float (single-precision) "temperature" : defineType(Float64, 32, arange(32)), # double[32] "idnumber" : defineType(Int64, 1, 0), # signed long long }
where defineType is a class that accepts (type, shape, default) parameters. It can be extended safely in the future if more needs appear.
You're way ahead of me here. The only thing I don't like about this is the additional relative complexity because of the addition of field names and default values. It would be nice to layer this more.
One more thing I don't understand looking at this: a dictionary is unordered. Todd