Convert the ReadVars Fortran program into Python

[jasondegraw]

Pull request overview

There have periodically been requests to translate the Fortran utilities to Python or C++, there's an issue here:

#6566

We haven't managed to get many of those converted for one reason or another. A few days ago, I needed to convert some ESOs into CSVs and I didn't have an installed copy of EnergyPlus or a Fortran compiler, but I did have the EnergyPlus source and the Codex agent pointed at it, so I asked Codex to write me a Python version of ReadVars so I could do the conversion. It's come up a few times before and I thought it'd be useful to have a Python version to stash someplace and use when I needed it.

Well, I guess the prompt I wrote was too open-ended: it nuked the Fortran and replaced it with the Python version that it wrote. @mbadams5 points out that Codex just did what I should have asked for. The -r switch now should invoke the Python version instead of "real" executable.

I'm going to put it in draft mode for now to see how it fairs in CI, and I want to do some testing of the performance beyond the basic Windows use that I have done already.

Pull Request Author

• Title of PR should be user-synopsis style (clearly understandable in a standalone changelog context)
• Label the PR with at least one of: Defect, Refactoring, NewFeature, Performance, and/or DoNoPublish
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  • Update ..\scripts\Epl-run.bat
  • Update ..\scripts\RunEPlus.bat
  • Update ..\src\EPLaunch\ MainModule.bas, epl-ui.frm, and epl.vbp (VersionComments)
  • Update ...github\workflows\energyplus.py

Reviewer

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