A few things going on here: - A bit of refactoring to handle the output preparation for string   columns of binary tables in its own method, since it deserves a bit   of special handling compared to other types - Added a new _ascii_encode function which is a limited form of   np.char.encode just for ASCII, and which can output directly to   an existing array.  This should make a big difference in memory usage   when writing large string columns. - It ocurred to me that the _rstrip_inplace call only needs to be called   on the *output* array (that will be written to disk) and only after   encoding has been performed.
A few things going on here:
- A bit of refactoring to handle the output preparation for string
  columns of binary tables in its own method, since it deserves a bit
  of special handling compared to other types
- Added a new _ascii_encode function which is a limited form of
  np.char.encode just for ASCII, and which can output directly to
  an existing array.  This should make a big difference in memory usage
  when writing large string columns.
- It ocurred to me that the _rstrip_inplace call only needs to be called
  on the *output* array (that will be written to disk) and only after
  encoding has been performed.

bsipocz/astropy,lpsinger/astropy,joergdietrich/astropy,lpsinger/astropy,bsipocz/astropy,dhomeier/astropy,AustereCuriosity/astropy,saimn/astropy,funbaker/astropy,stargaser/astropy,MSeifert04/astropy,pllim/astropy,joergdietrich/astropy,saimn/astropy,lpsinger/astropy,larrybradley/astropy,bsipocz/astropy,saimn/astropy,astropy/astropy,kelle/astropy,tbabej/astropy,MSeifert04/astropy,AustereCuriosity/astropy,pllim/astropy,lpsinger/astropy,kelle/astropy,kelle/astropy,MSeifert04/astropy,dhomeier/astropy,larrybradley/astropy,StuartLittlefair/astropy,DougBurke/astropy,funbaker/astropy,lpsinger/astropy,mhvk/astropy,StuartLittlefair/astropy,DougBurke/astropy,MSeifert04/astropy,astropy/astropy,AustereCuriosity/astropy,astropy/astropy,saimn/astropy,StuartLittlefair/astropy,aleksandr-bakanov/astropy,bsipocz/astropy,mhvk/astropy,tbabej/astropy,larrybradley/astropy,stargaser/astropy,pllim/astropy,stargaser/astropy,AustereCuriosity/astropy,aleksandr-bakanov/astropy,DougBurke/astropy,aleksandr-bakanov/astropy,AustereCuriosity/astropy,StuartLittlefair/astropy,larrybradley/astropy,joergdietrich/astropy,joergdietrich/astropy,tbabej/astropy,dhomeier/astropy,astropy/astropy,kelle/astropy,DougBurke/astropy,funbaker/astropy,funbaker/astropy,kelle/astropy,joergdietrich/astropy,mhvk/astropy,aleksandr-bakanov/astropy,saimn/astropy,pllim/astropy,mhvk/astropy,tbabej/astropy,dhomeier/astropy,larrybradley/astropy,astropy/astropy,stargaser/astropy,pllim/astropy,tbabej/astropy,dhomeier/astropy,mhvk/astropy,StuartLittlefair/astropy