Sturla Molden wrote:
arr = np.zeros(..) cdef int[:,:] buf = arr # 2D buffer
Here, buf would be something else than arr; it is a seperate view to the array for low-level purposes.
I like your proposal. The reason we use Fortran for numerical computing is that Fortran makes it easy to manipulate arrays. C or C++ sucks terribly for anything related to numerical computing, and arrays in particular.
What's your take on Blitz++? Around here when you say C++ and numerical in the same sentence, Blitz++ is what they mean.
Cython is currently not better than C. The ndarray syntax you added last summer is useless if we need to pass the array or a view/slice to another function. That is almost always the case. While the syntax is there, the
This can be fixed with the existing syntax: http://trac.cython.org/cython_trac/ticket/177 Introducing this syntax would actually mean less time to focus on "real usability issues" like that. OTOH, if the syntax I propose is superior, it's better to introduce it early in a long-term perspective.
Fortran 90/95 does this already, which is a major reason for chosing it for numerical computing. If you have something like this working, I believe many scientists would be happy to retire Fortran. It's not that anyone likes it that much. Anyhow, I don't see myself retiring Fortran and f2py any time soon.
That's certainly an interesting perspective. Requires a lot of work though :-) -- Dag Sverre