[SciPy-user] HDF5 vs FITS

[Robert Kern]

Anne Archibald wrote:
> On 20/04/07, Perry Greenfield <perry at stsci.edu> wrote:
> 
>> I think that is a bit too broadly posed to answer in any simple way
>> (if you are wondering how HDF and FITS compare). Speed? Flexibility?
>> Etc. FITS is generally much less flexible. However, it is archival.
>> Something that HDF has a harder time claiming. And it is very well
>> entrenched in astronomy.
> 
> FITS has certain limitations, which people seem to work their way
> around in different ways. For example, RXTE data processing produces
> FITS files which generally use a sui generis data description language
> to describe the layout of bitfields in its tables. Is there a nice
> page summarizing the capabilities of HDF5, for comparison?

This one is pretty good.

  http://hdfgroup.com/whatishdf5.html

It links to this paper which goes more in depth, but is still an overview of the
capabilities (rather than documentation about how to use the libraries).

  http://hdfgroup.com/HDF5/RD100-2002/All_About_HDF5.pdf

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
 that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
 an underlying truth."
  -- Umberto Eco