Request for new feature - Support for .dat heka files

[vsj37]

This is a feature request to add support to heka files (Dat files).

Neo recommends to use the stfio module for loading these files. The problem is that this library is c++ based and requires a complex building process.

We currently use an openly available python library to load these files. It would be fantastic to stitch our file loader into the neo framework.

I have included a jupyter file which has the 4 following sections:

1. Loads a single trace from the dat file;
2. Loads 50 traces from Group 0, Series 0
3. Explains the full tree structure of a dat file (arrangement of ephys data according to groups, series and traces)
4. Displays all the channels used while recording

The jupyter file uses this heka_reader - https://github.com/campagnola/heka_reader

I have also uploaded an example dat file in a google drive folder - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12qdDNXsT5PmScvdhxQpDU2vLeUPe8qai?usp=sharing

The jupyter file and heka reader file can be found on this github repo: https://github.com/vsj37/Neo_heka

[apdavison]

Related issue: #1050