On Wed, May 26, 2010 at 4:37 AM, Travis Oliphant <oliph...@enthought.com> wrote: > > Hi everyone, > > There has been some talk about re-factoring NumPy to separate out the > Python C-API layer and make NumPy closer to a C-library. I know > there are a few different ideas about what this means, and also that > people are very busy. I also know there is a NumPy 2.0 release that > is in the works. > > I'm excited to let everyone know that we (at Enthought) have been able > to find resources (about 3 man months) to work on this re-factoring > project and Scott and Jason (both very experienced C and Python > programmers) are actively pursuing it. My hope is that NumPy 2.0 > will contain this re-factoring (which should be finished just after > SciPy 2010 --- where I'm going to organize a Sprint on NumPy which > will include at least date-time improvements and re-factoring work).
This sounds great. As for how this is to be done, what would be the numpy aspects to be worked on first ? The obvious candidates are broadcasting, indexing, and ufunc ? Concerning the goal of making numpy available to other languages, is the strategy already decided ? For example, will the core C API be reference-counted though python, or will this be abstracted ? It may be not feasable in the timeframe that Enthought has in mind, but I have been wondering for some time if we could do something like LUA does. LUA has a stronger story than python in terms of embedding within other languages, and the stack may be one solution for abstracting the reference counting (only the API around the stack and its implementation would need to be aware of a particular implementation of memory management). David > > While we have specific goals for the re-factoring, we want this > activity to be fully integrated with the NumPy community and Scott and > Jason want to interact with the community as much as feasible as they > suggest re-factoring changes (though they both have more experience > with phone-conversations to resolve concerns than email chains and so > some patience from everybody will be appreciated). > > Because Jason and Scott are new to this mailing list (but not new to > NumPy), I wanted to introduce them so they would feel more > comfortable posting questions and people would have some context as to > what they were trying to do. > > Scott and Jason are both very proficient and skilled programmers and I > have full confidence in their abilities. That said, we very much > want the input of as many people as possible as we pursue the goal of > grouping together more tightly the Python C-API interface layer to > NumPy. > > I will be involved in some of the discussions, but am currently on a > different project which has tight schedules and so I will only be able > to provide limited "mailing-list" visibility. > > Best regards, > > -Travis > > > > _______________________________________________ > NumPy-Discussion mailing list > NumPy-Discussion@scipy.org > http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion > _______________________________________________ NumPy-Discussion mailing list NumPy-Discussion@scipy.org http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion
