IPM RAS PSK and FS spectrometer files viewer

Required packages:

• pandas,
• pyqtgraph>=0.13.3,
• qtpy>=2.3.1,
• scipy,
• any of PyQt6, PySide6, PyQt5, PySide2.

Optional packages:

• numexpr: for accelerating certain numerical operations;
• bottleneck: for accelerating certain types of nan evaluations;
• openpyxl: for saving MS Excel files.

They should install at the first application start automatically.

Required Python: >= 3.8

Notes:

• only Python <= 3.8 is available for MS Windows 7, so, there is not much choice for those who use it;
• PySide2 requires Python < 3.11; there is a port of PySide2 on Python 3.11 by conda-forge, but it's unclear whether it's stable;
• PyQt6 and PySide6 require pretty modern OS, e.g., 64-bit MS Windows 10 21H2 or later;
• pyqtgraph<0.13.3 is incompatible with Qt6>=6.5.0.

Getting Python

Python might already been installed on your system. If your system supports repositories, check them first. Otherwise, download an appropriate Python distribution (or the source code) from https://www.python.org/downloads/ and install it.

It will be convenient to add the Python directory to the PATH environment variable to get quick access to the binaries.

Getting the application

The source code is available at https://github.com/StSav012/psk_viewer.

Use pip or another Python package manager

You can get the code with pip (the preferred way):

• (optionally) create a virtual environment and activate it,
• issue

  pip install psk_viewer
  

  in the command line.

Then, do

pip install -U psk_viewer

every time you wish to update the code.

Use git

You can get the code with git:

• navigate to the directory you wish to store the code in,
• issue

  git clone https://github.com/StSav012/psk_viewer.git
  

  in the command line,
• find psk_viewer directory with the code; feel free to move or rename however you want.

Then, do

git pull https://github.com/StSav012/psk_viewer.git

every time you wish to update the code.

Use the official GitHub software

This way is pretty much like the previous.

If you prefer CLI applications, issue

gh repo clone StSav012/psk_viewer

in the preferred directory.

Get a packed archive

• download the source code archive from https://github.com/StSav012/psk_viewer/archive/master.zip,
• unpack its content into a directory to your taste.

The source code will get updated every time the application starts unless you manually delete updater.py file.

Launching the application

After the installation via pip or another package manager, an executable named psk_viewer should be available in the environment. That's all.

Otherwise, there's more to do.

A file called main.py should be fed to Python executable.

If the file associations set so, the opening of the file should lead to executing the code. Ugly and unsafe.

If the Python directory is in PATH environment variable, issue something like

python main.py

Otherwise, use the full path to python (or python3) executable.

Feel free to create an entry to the quick launch or to the desktop to avoid excessive typing. The text does not cover this topic anyhow.

Usage tips

Parts of the application interface can be moved, re-arranged, and resized.

The least evident part of the interface is the toolbar. Its buttons allow you to do the following:

• open a data file, either from the FS or the PSK spectrometer, see the selector below the file name;
• clear everything opened and marked;
• replace the displayed data with their finite-step second derivative (if appropriate);
• switch the displayed data between the detector voltage and the absorption values (if appropriate);
• export the displayed data into a numerical table or as a picture;
• mark interesting data points, copy the values, save them, or remove the marks;
• customize colors, lines thickness, and some text formatting.

Read the tooltips, they may appear useful.