Creation of the RMG_Obj class

This class provides a general as_dict method to help with yml file construction for other objects in rmgpy to inherit

The as_dict method provides a dictionary where all attributes that are lists, arrays, floats and strings are represented as entries in a dictionary
with an addition attribute that maps the word 'class' to the name of the class of the object, all other attributes are represented as the dictionary
generated by calling their own as_dict method

rmgpy/rmg_obj.py

@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
+###############################################################################
+#                                                                             #
+# RMG - Reaction Mechanism Generator                                          #
+#                                                                             #
+# Copyright (c) 2002-2018 Prof. William H. Green (whgreen@mit.edu),           #
+# Prof. Richard H. West (r.west@neu.edu) and the RMG Team (rmg_dev@mit.edu)   #
+#                                                                             #
+# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a     #
+# copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'),  #
+# to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation   #
+# the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,    #
+# and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the       #
+# Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:        #
+#                                                                             #
+# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in  #
+# all copies or substantial portions of the Software.                         #
+#                                                                             #
+# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR  #
+# IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,    #
+# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE #
+# AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER      #
+# LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING     #
+# FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER         #
+# DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.                                                   #
+#                                                                             #
+###############################################################################
+import numpy as np
+
+class RMG_Obj(object):
+    """
+    This class provides a general as_dict method to help with yml file construction
+    for other objects in rmgpy to inherit
+    """
+    def __init__(self):
+        pass
+    def as_dict(self):
+        D = self.__dict__.copy()
+        for key,val in D.iteritems():
+            if not isinstance(val,float) and not isinstance(val,str):
+                if isinstance(val,np.ndarray):
+                    D[key] = val.tolist()
+                elif isinstance(val,list):
+                    pass
+                else:
+                    D[key] = val.as_dict()
+
+        D['class'] = self.__class__.__name__
+
+        return D