[Matrix-SIG] "data" class?

[Mike Miller]

More and more frequently I've been coming up against problems
that make me wish I had a general class to hold a collection of
data pairs, represented by two NumPpy arrays, along with
associated information such as names, descriptions and units.
This would be something like a netCDF file or an HDF vdata or a
curve in Gist.  I'd like to have such a creature so that I can
easily plot a set of data using default labels and ranges and so
I can do calculations that take units into account.  I can even
imagine interfaces to netCDF and HDF that are subclasses of such
a class.  It could even be used as an object for uniform access
to various plotting libraries and databases.

Has anyone else thought about such a thing?  Or does any one know
of refs that might help me reach a sensible design?

Mike

-- 
Michael A. Miller                                miller5@uiuc.edu
  Department of Physics, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  PGP public key available on request