[NeXus-tech] Proposed revision of handling of arrays of strings

[Wintersberger, Eugen]

I agree with Herbert

On Mon, 2014-06-16 at 22:31 +0000, Tobias.Richter at diamond.ac.uk wrote:
> I second that. Reading strings in HDF5 isn't as pretty as it could be, but having string parsing code everywhere isn't better.

yeah :D

> 
> NAPI doesn't currently allow writing attribute arrays. However on reading they are currently presented as a backward compatible comma delimited string. So 1. is a NO-OP for NAPI users.

Isn't NAPI in a maintenance-only state without further development? If I
recall correctly this was agreed upon at the last NIAC meeting in
Abington.

regards 
  Eugen

> 
> Tobias
> 
> ________________________________________
> From: NeXus-tech [nexus-tech-bounces at nexusformat.org] on behalf of Herbert J. Bernstein [yayahjb at gmail.com]
> Sent: 16 June 2014 18:16
> To: NeXus Technical sub-committee list
> Subject: [NeXus-tech] Proposed revision of handling of arrays of strings
> 
> In at least 2 places in the NeXus format, various arrays of strings
> as used.  In the @axes attribute of data arrays in NXdata base
> class, the axes are listed as a "colon-delimited array".  In the
> group_names field of the NXdetector_group base class, the
> names are part of a "comma separated list of name [sic]".  I
> don't know if there are other simulated arrays of strings in the
> format, but I propose that we start a move from simulated
> arrays of strings to actual arrays of strings.
> 
> HDF5 supports arrays of strings both for data fields and for attributes.
> We are already using that capability in the NXmx examples.  While
> there are limitations, overall it make for cleaner, simpler code
> than working with colon-separated or comma-separated simulated
> arrays.
> 
> I suggest that the NeXus dcumentation be amended to
> 
> 1.  Permit immediate optional use of actual arrays of strings in all cases
> where colon-delimited or comma-delimited simulations of arrays have been
> specified; and
> 2.  That a discussion be started on the possibility of deprecating the
> use of colon-delimited or comma-delimited simulations of arrays in favor
> of actual arrays of strings.
> 
> Regards,
>   Herbert
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> 

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