HDF5 bindings for D

[Laeeth Isharc via Digitalmars-d-announce]

https://github.com/Laeeth/d_hdf5

HDF5 is a very valuable tool for those working with large data 
sets.

 From HDF5group.org

HDF5 is a unique technology suite that makes possible the 
management of extremely large and complex data collections. The 
HDF5 technology suite includes:

* A versatile data model that can represent very complex data 
objects and a wide variety of metadata.
* A completely portable file format with no limit on the number 
or size of data objects in the collection.
* A software library that runs on a range of computational 
platforms, from laptops to massively parallel systems, and 
implements a high-level API with C, C++, Fortran 90, and Java 
interfaces.
* A rich set of integrated performance features that allow for 
access time and storage space optimizations.
* Tools and applications for managing, manipulating, viewing, and 
analyzing the data in the collection.
* The HDF5 data model, file format, API, library, and tools are 
open and distributed without charge.

 From h5py.org:
[HDF5] lets you store huge amounts of numerical data, and easily 
manipulate that data from NumPy. For example, you can slice into 
multi-terabyte datasets stored on disk, as if they were real 
NumPy arrays. Thousands of datasets can be stored in a single 
file, categorized and tagged however you want.

H5py uses straightforward NumPy and Python metaphors, like 
dictionary and NumPy array syntax. For example, you can iterate 
over datasets in a file, or check out the .shape or .dtype 
attributes of datasets. You don't need to know anything special 
about HDF5 to get started.

In addition to the easy-to-use high level interface, h5py rests 
on a object-oriented Cython wrapping of the HDF5 C API. Almost 
anything you can do from C in HDF5, you can do from h5py.

Best of all, the files you create are in a widely-used standard 
binary format, which you can exchange with other people, 
including those who use programs like IDL and MATLAB.

===========
As far as I know there has not really been a complete set of HDF5 
bindings for D yet.

Bindings should have three levels:
1. pure C API declaration
2. 'nice' D wrapper around C API (eg that knows about strings, 
not just char*)
3. idiomatic D interface that uses CTFE/templates

I borrowed Stefan Frijter's work on (1) above to get started.  I 
cannot keep track of things when split over too many source 
files, so I put everything in one file - hdf5.d.

Have implemented a basic version of 2.  Includes throwOnError 
rather than forcing checking status C style, but the exception 
code is not very good/complete (time + lack of experience with D 
exceptions).

(3) will have to come later.

It's more or less complete, and the examples I have translated so 
far mostly work.  But still a work in progress.  Any 
help/suggestions appreciated.  [I am doing this for myself, so 
project is not as pretty as I would like in an ideal world].


https://github.com/Laeeth/d_hdf5