file data => array(s)

[Eric]

I'm trying to read some file data into a set of arrays.  The file data
is just four columns of numbers, like so:

   1.2    2.2   3.3  0.5
   0.1   0.2    1.0  10.1
   ... and so on

I'd like to read this into four arrays, one array for each column.
Alternatively, I guess something like this is okay too:

   [[1.2, 2.2, 3.3, 0.5], [0.1, 0.2, 1.0, 10.1], ... and so on]

I came up with the following for the four array option:

   file = open(fileName, 'r')
   for line in file.readlines():
      d1, e1, d2, e2 = map(float, line.split())
      data1.append(d1)  # where data1, err1, data2, err2 are init-ed
as empty lists
      err1.append(e1)
      data2.append(d2)
      err2.append(e2)
   file.close()

But somehow it doesn't seem very python-esque (I'm thinking there's a
more elegant and succinct way to do it in python).  I've also tried
replacing the above "map" line with:

      d = d + map(float, line.split())  # where d is initialized as d
= []

But all I get is one long flat list, not what I want.

So is the map and append method the best I can do or is there a
slicker way?

One more thing, no numpy.  Nothing against numpy but I'm curious to
see what can be done with just the box stock python install.

TIA,
eric