@staticmethod<EOL><INDENT>def read_param_file_to_dict(file_name):<DEDENT>
data = loadtxt(file_name, delimiter='<STR_LIT:=>', dtype=scipy.string0)<EOL>data_dict = dict(data)<EOL>for key in data_dict.keys():<EOL><INDENT>data_dict[key] = data_dict[key].strip()<EOL>data_dict[key.strip()] = data_dict[key]<EOL>del data_dict[key]<EOL><DEDENT>return data_dict<EOL>
Loads a text file to a python dictionary using '=' as the delimiter

        :param file_name: the name and path of the text file