code: def check_1d(x, name):
      
  
      x = asarray(x)
      if size(x) == 1:
          x = asarray([x])
      if x.ndim == 2:
          raise Exception("Property: %s must be one-dimensional" % name)
      x = x.flatten()
  
      return x
docs: Check and parse a one-dimensional spec as either a single [x] or a list of [x,x,x...]