Re: [h5md-user] Update

[Pierre de Buyl]

Hi all,

On Fri, Nov 15, 2013 at 02:13:52PM +0100, Pierre de Buyl wrote:
> I just re-read the whole spec and find it quite mature now :-) I just pushed a
> few commits but mostly for clarification and consistency.

In addition to the specification, we should also agree on the modules that are
listed currently. The "units" module has not been discussed much but I think
that there are a few issues remaining:

1. encoding. the discussion on encoding was a bit short. While it seems
technically ok to use UTF8, I think that it might lead to additional issues that
will hurt both the practical use and the adoption of H5MD. The biggest one is
that readers supporting the units module must support UTF8, else it makes little
sense. And I think that the amount of people interested in units is much larger
than the number of people interested in UTF8.
2. the list of units. In relation to the previous point, °C, °F, Ω, ° and Å are
in danger :-)

One practical issue I have thought of is that, for instance, if you want to plot
an observable that has UTF8 units with a viewer (matplotlib or gnuplot) that
does not support UTF8 completely might trip on units.

The other one is that is may frighten potential users/developers?

P