On Monday 22 August 2005 10:42, Matt Newville wrote:
Bruce's and Ken's IXSIF seems like a good first draft. I have some minor issues that I sort of don't like, but it's a very good start. I wouldn't want to _store_ the data that way, but I think it's definitely desirable to read and write to such a Standard Format (once it's defined).
Matt makes a really important point in regard to my earlier post. The file format that Ken and I are suggesting should not reflect the internal structure of a good database application. The database should be ... well ... a database. The thing that we are suggesting is an interchange format. I.e. it is the file that the database app might write if the user requests a file. It might also be the file that data acquisition software writes when a scan is completed at the beamline. It might also be the file that a program like Athena writes when an output column data file is generated. As such, and with libraries written in several popular languages, it would be easy for data analysis software to import and it would be easy for the database application under discussion to import. B -- Bruce Ravel ----------------------------------- bravel@anl.gov -or- ravel@phys.washington.edu Environmental Research Division, Building 203, Room E-165 Argonne National Laboratory phone and voice mail: (1) 630 252 5033 Argonne IL 60439, USA fax: (1) 630 252 9793 My homepage: http://feff.phys.washington.edu/~ravel EXAFS software: http://feff.phys.washington.edu/~ravel/software/exafs/