[SciPy-User] HDF4, HDF5, netcdf solutions -- PyNIO/PyNGL or CDAT or ??

[Francesc Alted]

A Tuesday 02 November 2010 02:28:01 Charles R Harris escrigué:
> On Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 4:59 PM, Francesc Alted <faltet at pytables.org> 
wrote:
> > A Monday 01 November 2010 23:13:56 Zachary Pincus escrigué:
> > > Ack -- I didn't mean to set off a big back and forth! I'd only
> > > wanted to convey that h5py and pytables seem to serve different
> > > purposes: one a "simple and thin" pythonic wrapper around the
> > > official hdf5 libraries, and the other seeking to provide some
> > > value-add on top of that.
> > 
> > I think the above is a good way to express the main difference
> > between h5py and PyTables.  But, unfortunately, many wrong beliefs
> > about packages that are similar in functionality extend in
> > Internet without a solid reason behind them.  I suppose this is a
> > consequence of the propagation of information in multi-user
> > channels.  Unfortunately, fighting these myths is not always easy.
> > 
> > > I guess I got something of the rationale for using h5py over
> > > pytables wrong -- but there is some rationale, right? What is
> > > that?
> > 
> > As you said above, both PyTables and h5py serve similar purposes in
> > different ways, and expressing a simple rational on using one or
> > another is not that easy.  If you just need HDF5 compatibility,
> > then h5py *might* be enough for you.  If you want more advanced
> > functionality, *might* be PyTables can offer it to you.  Also,
> > people may like the API of one package better than the other.  And
> > some people may not like the fact that there exist a Pro version
> > of PyTables (although others may appreciate it).
> 
> I find PyTables quite a bit faster than h5py and more convenient for
> my own uses. However, when I need to exchange files with folks
> running IDL or Matlab on Windows it is generally safer to use h5py.

I'd appreciate if you can send to me some samples of IDL/Matlab files 
that cannot be read by PyTables.  I always try to improve compatibility 
with other apps, and perhaps these cases can be solved easily.

-- 
Francesc Alted