Add version check for h5py

Author: JuliaSprenger

neo/io/hdf5io.py

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 
 
 import logging
+from distutils.version import LooseVersion
 import pickle
 import numpy as np
 import quantities as pq
@@ -23,7 +24,7 @@
 from neo.core.baseneo import MergeError
 
 logger = logging.getLogger('Neo')
-
+min_h5py_version = LooseVersion('2.6.0')
 
 def disjoint_groups(groups):
     """`groups` should be a list of sets"""
@@ -55,6 +56,10 @@ class NeoHdf5IO(BaseIO):
     def __init__(self, filename):
         if not HAVE_H5PY:
             raise ImportError("h5py is not available")
+        if HAVE_H5PY:
+            if LooseVersion(h5py.__version__) < min_h5py_version:
+                raise ImportError('h5py version {} is too old. Minimal required version is {}'
+                                  ''.format(h5py.__version__, min_h5py_version))
         BaseIO.__init__(self, filename=filename)
         self._data = h5py.File(filename, 'r')
         self.object_refs = {}