An odd bug that's occurring with Numpy 1.9 on Python 3.4 only (?).  I can't even reproduce this in PyFITS at all, and it occurs randomly in Astropy.  It appears that np.char.replace can actually resize the original array because it trims any null bytes it encounters in each string.  So for example an S5 array with a buffer like 'abc\x00\x00defg\x00' is converted to an S4 array with a buffer like 'abc\x00defg' followed by gibberish.  I don't fully understand why this sometimes leads to problems, but the problems occur when trying to interpret the bytes in the array buffer as strings representing floats.  Just filling any nulls in the array buffer with spaces circumvents the problem.
An odd bug that's occurring with Numpy 1.9 on Python 3.4 only (?).  I can't even reproduce this in PyFITS at all, and it occurs randomly in Astropy.  It appears that np.char.replace can actually resize the original array because it trims any null bytes it encounters in each string.  So for example an S5 array with a buffer like 'abc\x00\x00defg\x00' is converted to an S4 array with a buffer like 'abc\x00defg' followed by gibberish.  I don't fully understand why this sometimes leads to problems, but the problems occur when trying to interpret the bytes in the array buffer as strings representing floats.  Just filling any nulls in the array buffer with spaces circumvents the problem.

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