title: How to read in .ascii file and convert? (Python)
body: <p>I have some .ascii files. the first few lines, when opened in Excel, look like this: </p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;ETASAsciiItemFile  record  CrLf    Tab
  &gt;sampleCount    22327       
  &gt;time   sys_inp_amb_temp_degc\CCP:1     
  &gt;f8 f4      
  &gt;s  °C      
  &gt;0,454984023542835  235,938     
  &gt;0,671164096921757  235,938     
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I need to be able to supply "normal" looking numbers. Converting to a csv is ideal. </p>
  
  <p>Here's what I have - I am </p>
  
  <pre><code>app = QApplication( sys.argv )
  fname1 = unicode( QFileDialog.getOpenFileName() )
  app.quit
  
  csv1_array = []
  with open(fname1,'rb') as csv1_doc:
      csv1_array += csv.reader(csv1_doc)
  
  path_plus_title1 = (fname1.strip('.ascii')) +'.csv'
  
  with open(path_plus_title1, 'wb') as outfile:
      writer = csv.writer(outfile)
      writer.writerows(csv1_array)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I know, I should be putting these bits into functions, and I will. I was just trying to do it quick n dirty. </p>
  
  <p>Here is how my output currently looks:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;"ETASAsciiItemFile record  CrLf    Tab"        
  &gt;"sampleCount   22327          "        
  &gt;"time  sys_inp_amb_temp_degc\CCP:1 "       
  &gt;"f8    f4  "       
  &gt;"s ""°C""  "       
  &gt;0  "454984023542835    23" "5938   "
  &gt;0  "671164096921757    23" "5938   "
  </code></pre>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>clearly, since I'm telling it to open it as if it's unicode, that's a problem. It rejects ASCII as an option, though. </p></li>
  <li><p>Also, it's deciding that those commas are delimiters. Also a problem.</p></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Any thoughts? Excel options instead of Python options are totally welcome. </p>