Changeset 1120 for trunk/bindings/python/nxs.py

Timestamp:

25/10/08 00:17:16 (4 years ago)

Author:

Paul Kienzle

Message:

python: make proper package (step 1) Refs #101.

File:

• trunk/bindings/python/nxs.py (modified) (9 diffs)

trunk/bindings/python/nxs.py

@@ -6 +6 @@
 Wrapper for the NeXus shared library.
 
+Use this interface when converting code from other languages which
+do not support the natural view of the hierarchy.
 
 Library Location
@@ -11 +13 @@
 
 This wrapper needs the location of the libNeXus precompiled binary. It
-looks in the following places in order:
+looks in the following places in order::
+
     os.environ['NEXUSLIB']                  - All
     directory containing nxs.py             - All
@@ -21 +24 @@
     /usr/lib                                - Unix and Darwin
 
-On Windows it looks for libNeXus.dll and libNeXus-0.dll;
-NEXUSDIR defaults to r'C:\Program Files\NeXus Data Format'
+On Windows it looks for one of libNeXus.dll or libNeXus-0.dll.
 On OS X it looks for libNeXus.dylib
 On Unix it looks for libNeXus.so
+NEXUSDIR defaults to r'C:\Program Files\NeXus Data Format'.
 PREFIX defaults to /usr/local, but is replaced by the value of
 --prefix during configure.
@@ -36 +39 @@
 first import of nxs.
 
+Example
+=======
+
+  import nxs
+  file = nxs.open('filename.nxs','rw')
+  file.opengroup('entry1')
+  file.opendata('definition')
+  print file.getdata()
+  file.close()
+
+  See nxstest.py for a more complete example.
+
 Interface
 =========
 
-Full documentation of the NeXus API is available at nexusformat.org.
-
-This wrapper differs from napi in several respects:
+When converting code to python from other languages you do not
+necessarily want to redo the file handling code.  The nxs
+provides an interface which more closely follows the
+NeXus application programming interface (NAPI_).
+
+This wrapper differs from NAPI in several respects::
+
   - Data values are loaded/stored directly from numpy arrays.
   - Return codes are turned into exceptions.
@@ -51 +70 @@
   - NXmalloc/NXfree are not needed.
 
-Example:
-
-  import nxs
-  file = nxs.open('filename.nxs','rw')
-  file.opengroup('entry1')
-  file.opendata('definition')
-  print file.getdata()
-  file.close()
-
-  See nxstest.py for a more complete example.
-
-File open modes can be constants or strings:
+File open modes can be constants or strings::
 
   nxs.ACC_READ      'r'
@@ -71 +79 @@
   nxs.ACC_CREATEXML 'wx'
 
-Dimension constants:
+Dimension constants::
 
   nxs.UNLIMITED  - for the extensible data dimension
   nxs.MAXRANK    - for the number of possible dimensions
 
-Data types are strings corresponding to the numpy data types:
+Data types are strings corresponding to the numpy data types::
 
   'float32' 'float64'
@@ -82 +90 @@
   'uint8' 'uint16' 'uint32' 'uint64'
 
-  Use 'char' for strings.  You can use the numpy dtype attribute for the
-  data type.
+  Use 'char' for string data.  
+
+You can use the numpy A.dtype attribute for the type of array A.
 
 Dimensions are lists of integers or numpy arrays.  You can use the
-numpy shape attribute for the dimensions.
-
-Compression codes are:
+numpy A.shape attribute for the dimensions of array A.
+
+Compression codes are::
 
  'none' 'lzw' 'rle' 'huffman'
@@ -94 +103 @@
   As of this writing NeXus only supports 'none' and 'lzw'.
 
-Miscellaneous constants:
+Miscellaneous constants::
 
   nxs.MAXNAMELEN  - names must be shorter than this
@@ -112 +121 @@
    - if I remove the open/close call in the wrapper it doesn't leak.
 
+.. _NAPI:  http://www.nexusformat.org/Application_Program_Interface
 """
+__all__ = ['MAXNAMELEN','MAXPATHLEN','NeXus','open']
+
 import sys, os, numpy, ctypes