Changeset 2087 for trunk/docs

Timestamp:

Dec 8, 2015 6:02:57 PM (8 years ago)

Author:

toby

Message:

change error handling if h5py not installed; add new condition variable to importers (self.UseReader?); changes to docs to reflect this and consolidate description of package requirements

Location:

trunk/docs/source

Files:

• imports.rst (modified) (1 diff)
• index.rst (modified) (1 diff)

trunk/docs/source/imports.rst

@@ -60 +60 @@
     method when ``strictExtension`` is False.
   * ``formatName``: a string to be used in the menu. Should be short. 
-  * ``longFormatName``: a longer string to be used to describe the format in help. 
+  * ``longFormatName``: a longer string to be used to describe the
+    format in help. 
+
+Note that if an importer detects a condition which prevents its use,
+for example because a required Python package is not present, it can
+set the value of ``self.UseReader`` to False. Another possible use for
+this would be an importer that requires a network connection to a
+remote site. Setting ``self.UseReader`` to False must be done in the 
+``__init__`` method and will prevent the
+importer from being used or included in the expected menu. 
 
 Reader()

trunk/docs/source/index.rst

@@ -32 +32 @@
 * NumPy (http://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/), 
 * SciPy (http://docs.scipy.org/doc/scipy/reference/),
-* matplotlib (http://matplotlib.org/contents.html)  
-* PIL or Pillow (https://pillow.readthedocs.org) and 
+* matplotlib (http://matplotlib.org/contents.html)  and
 * PyOpenGL (http://pyopengl.sourceforge.net/documentation)
 
-These packages are not distributed as part of the Python standard
+Two packages are used by some parts of the code, but are not required:
+* PIL (http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil/) or Pillow (https://pillow.readthedocs.org). This is used to save
+  and read certain types of images.
+* h5py is the HDF5 support package. This is (not surprisingly) required
+  to import images from HDF5 files. If this library is not present,
+  the HDF5 importer(s) will not appear in the import menu and a
+  warning message appears on GSAS-II startup. 
+
+Note that the packages listed above are not distributed as part of the Python standard
 library and must be obtained separately (or in a bundled Python
-package such as the Enthought Python Distribution/Canopy or
-Continuum.io's anaconda).  The PyOpenGL package will be installed into
+package such as the Enthought Inc.'s Canopy or
+Continuum.io's anaconda; we also use the older Enthought Python
+Distribution).  
+One exception is the PyOpenGL package. This will be installed into
 Python by GSAS-II if not found, so it does not need to be included in
 the Python bundle, but the setuptools package