On Wed, 1 Dec 2004, Bruce Ravel wrote:
I agree that it's a fool's game trying to stay on top of every single goofy format that too-clever-by-half DAQ software programmers have come up with. Much better than that would be to suggest standards for an exafs data file format. At this late date, we have a pretty good grasp of the technology involved in exafs measurements and so we know what needs to be in the file. If someone -- say the International XAFS Society -- were to publish a standard, it would provide guidance that would benefit the programmers of DAQ software, of analysis software, and of any tools to link the two.
Bruce: I agree with this notion. The file format we use has been loosely patterned after other beamline's formats. Perhaps it would be good to define a set of rules for a self-documenting file format plus a minimal set of information whcih needs to be present in the file. Then different beamlines can just add what they like in terms of additional documentation or details specific to the line. Carlo -- Carlo U. Segre -- Professor of Physics Associate Dean for Special Projects, Graduate College Illinois Institute of Technology Voice: 312.567.3498 Fax: 312.567.3494 Carlo.Segre@iit.edu http://www.iit.edu/~segre