Getting Started

  • Follow these instructions to install SIDpy

  • We have compiled a list of handy tutorials on basic / prerequisite topics such as programming in python, hdf5 handling, etc.

  • See our examples to get started on creating and using your own SIDpy datasets.

  • Details regarding the definition, implementation, and guidelines for N-Dimensional Spectroscopy and Imaging Data (NSID) are available in this document.

  • If you are interested in contributing your code to SIDpy, please look at our guidelines

  • We also have a handy document for converting your matlab code to python.

  • If you need detailed documentation on what is where and why, all our classes, functions, etc., please visit our API

  • For a concise change-log, please see the release history.

  • Please get in touch if you would like to use SIDpy and pyNSID for other new or mature scientific packages.

  • Have questions? See our FAQ to see if we have already answered them.dd

  • Need more information? Please see our Arxiv paper.

  • Need help or need to get in touch with us? See our contact information.

Guide for python novices

For the python novices by a python novice - Nick Mostovych, Brown University

  1. Watch the video on installing Anaconda

  2. Follow instructions on the installation page to install Anaconda.

  3. Watch the video tutorial on the Jupyter Notebooks

  4. Read the whole Tutorial on Basics page. Do NOT proceed unless you are familiar with basic python programming and usage.

  5. Read the document on the pyNSID data format. This is very important and highlights the advantages of using NSID. New users should not jump to the examples until they have a good understanding of the data format.

  6. Depending on your needs, go through the recommended sequence of tutorials and examples (see ‘EXAMPLES’ on the side panel on the left)

Tips and pitfalls

For the python novices by a python novice - Nick Mostovych, Brown University

  • Documentation and examples on this website are for the latest version of SIDpy. If something does not work as shown on this website, chances are that you may be using an older version of pyUSID. Follow the instructions to update SIDpy to the latest version

  • pyUSID has excellent documentation (+ examples too) for all functions. If you are ever confused with the usage of a function or class, you can get help in numerous ways:

    • If you are using jupyter notebooks, just hit the Shift+Tab keys after typing the name of your function. See this quick video for a demo. E.g. - type sidpy.Dataset(. Hit Shift+Tab twice or four times. You should be able to see the documentation for the class / function to learn how to supply inputs / extract outputs

    • Use the search function and reference the source code in the API section for detailed comments. Most detailed questions are answered there.

  • Many functions in SIDpy have a verbose keyword argument that can be set to True to get detailed print logs of intermediate steps in the function. This is very handy for debugging code

If there are tips or pitfalls you would like to add to this list, please get in touch to us