Re: HDF/HDF5

[Kenneth Jacker <khj@be.cs.appstate.edu>]

  jdr> I also agree that the ascii is more 'portable', but another
  jdr> possible advantage of binary is a more compact file size.

Another advantage to me of using a binary file format is saving the
time needed to translate between ASCII and binary representations
(both in writing and reading files).

I am working with single channel, audio data sets sampled at 44.1kHz
for periods of up to a minute or so.  That translates to over 2.6
million values per file.

Though I agree that ASCII is more much more convenient and portable,
considerable time would be necessary to convert the samples back to
binary (e.g., for playback through a DAC).


I thought using HDF was the "right way" to do it, but most likely it
is overkill.  Oh well ...

Thanks for everyone's comments!

  -Kenneth