PyTables:Installing hdf5

[Ajith Prasad]

Thanks, Maareten. It certainly looks a formidable undertaking for a
non-programmer! I hope there will be a fully compiled version that
could be installed using a typical Windows installer.

Maarten van Reeuwijk <maarten at remove_this_ws.tn.tudelft.nl> wrote in message news:<cn2ml8$des$1 at news.tudelft.nl>...
> Ajith Prasad wrote:
> 
> > I am trying to install the WinXP version of PyTables which requires
> > hdf5 (from http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF5/) as a pre-requisite.
> > However, I am at a loss as to how to install hdf5 - I have downloaded
> > the zipped version of hdf5 and unzipped it using WinZip but get a mass
> > of .exe and other files and have no clue as to how to proceed further.
> > Thanks in advance for any help.
> 
> I assume you downloaded the pre-compiled binary from
> ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF/HDF5/current/bin/windows/
> 
> Unpack the zip to a temp-dir and copy all the data inside the
> 5-163-winxp-net directory to say c:\hdf5. Then look in COMPILE.TXT in the
> DLL section to find the following instruction for compiling HDF-enabled
> programs:
> 
> DLLs:
> ----
>    Copy the hdf5dll.dll, hdf5_cppdll.dll, zlib.dll, and szlibdll.dll files 
>    from the location in the HDF5, szip, zlib binary distributions to the 
>    WINNT\SYSTEM directory.
> 
>    Bring up MSVC++ .NET.
> 
>    Select File->New->Projects->"Visual C++ Projects".  Then select 
>     "Managed C++ Empty Project" and enter a name.
>   
>    Select Project->Properties->Linker->Input
>    Enter "hdf5dll.lib hdf5_cppdll.lib zlib.lib szlibdll.lib" at the 
>      beginning of the "Additional Dependencies" line.
> 
>    Select Project->Properties->C/C++->Preprocessor
>    Under Preprocessor Definitions, add:  _HDF5USEDLL_
>    For C++ DLLs, add: HDF5CPP_USEDLL
> 
>    Select Project->Properties->C/C++->Code Generation->Runtime Library, 
>     and choose "multi-threaded DLL"
> 
>    Select Tools->Options->Projects->VC++ Directories.
>    Select "Include Files" under "Show directories for".
>    Enter the paths for the HDF5, szlib and zlib include files.
>    Then select "Library Files" under "Show directories for".
>    Enter the paths for the HDF5, szlib and zlib DLL exported libraries.
> 
>    Select Build->Compile <program>. (C or C++ program)
>    Select Build->Build <xxx.exe>.  
>    Select Build->Execute <xxx.exe>.
> 
> 
> Copying the dll's is essential for installing PyTables, but I don't know how
> the PyTables installer works under Windows.
> 
> HTH, Maarten