[SciPy-user] HDF5 Viewer for Python

[Gael Varoquaux]

On Tue, Nov 06, 2007 at 02:53:20PM -0800, Clowers, Brian H wrote:
> I have data sets in a HDF5 format that contain a number of arrays which
> I'd like to plot using matplotlib.  I can do this pretty easily using
> just IDLE and pyTables, however, it would be nice to put together a GUI
> and automate some of the key strokes.  Does anyone know of or have an
> alternative to viTables that they'd be willing to share?  viTables looks
> great but it is also 250 Euros for single license--then again if it had
> the capability to directly plot to matplotlib I'd consider it.  Anyway,
> when it comes to a GUI I imagine the challenge would be how to link the
> arrays or tables in the HDF5 file to a Treeview in an interactive
> manner.  Any thoughts?  

I wacked something specific for the hdf5 structure of the data of
my experiment together with pytables, matplotlib, and traits in 2 day's
work. It's ugly (really) and terribly specific to my data structure, but
it shows that doing something quick and dirty isn't hard.

I am not to sure I am willing to share the code, (:->, I will, if
somebody _really_ asks for it) because I think I could just puke by
looking at it. It came from an immediate need, not thought at all in
advance, with deadlines right at the corner, and no intention of reuse,
so it is horrendous. 

Something pretty would be possible with a bit more work, but not that
much, and by putting some actual thinking in it, rather than just coding
something strait up. I would use the same tools: pytables, matplotlib and
traits.

Gaël