On Sep 18, 2012, at 1:47 PM, Charles R Harris wrote: > > > On Tue, Sep 18, 2012 at 11:39 AM, Benjamin Root <ben.r...@ou.edu> wrote: > > > On Mon, Sep 17, 2012 at 9:33 PM, Charles R Harris <charlesr.har...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > On Mon, Sep 17, 2012 at 3:40 PM, Travis Oliphant <tra...@continuum.io> wrote: > > On Sep 17, 2012, at 8:42 AM, Benjamin Root wrote: > > > Consider the following code: > > > > import numpy as np > > a = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5], dtype=np.int16) > > a *= float(255) / 15 > > > > In v1.6.x, this yields: > > array([17, 34, 51, 68, 85], dtype=int16) > > > > But in master, this throws an exception about failing to cast via same_kind. > > > > Note that numpy was smart about this operation before, consider: > > a = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5], dtype=np.int16) > > a *= float(128) / 256 > > > yields: > > array([0, 1, 1, 2, 2], dtype=int16) > > > > Of course, this is different than if one does it in a non-in-place manner: > > np.array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5], dtype=np.int16) * 0.5 > > > > which yields an array with floating point dtype in both versions. I can > > appreciate the arguments for preventing this kind of implicit casting > > between non-same_kind dtypes, but I argue that because the operation is > > in-place, then I (as the programmer) am explicitly stating that I desire to > > utilize the current array to store the results of the operation, dtype and > > all. Obviously, we can't completely turn off this rule (for example, an > > in-place addition between integer array and a datetime64 makes no sense), > > but surely there is some sort of happy medium that would allow these sort > > of operations to take place? > > > > Lastly, if it is determined that it is desirable to allow in-place > > operations to continue working like they have before, I would like to see > > such a fix in v1.7 because if it isn't in 1.7, then other libraries (such > > as matplotlib, where this issue was first found) would have to change their > > code anyway just to be compatible with numpy. > > I agree that in-place operations should allow different casting rules. There > are different opinions on this, of course, but generally this is how NumPy > has worked in the past. > > We did decide to change the default casting rule to "same_kind" but making an > exception for in-place seems reasonable. > > I think that in these cases same_kind will flag what are most likely > programming errors and sloppy code. It is easy to be explicit and doing so > will make the code more readable because it will be immediately obvious what > the multiplicand is without the need to recall what the numpy casting rules > are in this exceptional case. IISTR several mentions of this before (Gael?), > and in some of those cases it turned out that bugs were being turned up. > Catching bugs with minimal effort is a good thing. > > Chuck > > > True, it is quite likely to be a programming error, but then again, there are > many cases where it isn't. Is the problem strictly that we are trying to > downcast the float to an int, or is it that we are trying to downcast to a > lower precision? Is there a way for one to explicitly relax the same_kind > restriction? > > I think the problem is down casting across kinds, with the result that floats > are truncated and the imaginary parts of imaginaries might be discarded. That > is, the value, not just the precision, of the rhs changes. So I'd favor an > explicit cast in code like this, i.e., cast the rhs to an integer. > > It is true that this forces downstream to code up to a higher standard, but I > don't see that as a bad thing, especially if it exposes bugs. And it isn't > difficult to fix.
Shouldn't we be issuing a warning, though? Even if the desire is to change the casting rules? The fact that multiple codes are breaking and need to be "upgraded" seems like a hard thing to require of someone going straight from 1.6 to 1.7. That's what I'm opposed to. All of these efforts move NumPy to its use as a library instead of an interactive "environment" where it started which is a good direction to move, but managing this move in the context of a very large user-community is the challenge we have. -Travis > > Chuck > > _______________________________________________ > NumPy-Discussion mailing list > NumPy-Discussion@scipy.org > http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion
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