On Thu, 29 Jun 2006, Travis Oliphant apparently wrote:
Please make any comments or voice major concerns
A rather minor issue, but I would just like to make sure that a policy decision was made not to move to a float default for identity(), ones(), zeros(), and empty(). (I leave aside arange().) I see the argument for a change to be 3-fold: 1. It is easier to introduce people to numpy if default data types are all float. (I teach, and I want my students to use numpy.) 2. It is a better match to languages from which users are likely to migrate (e.g., GAUSS or Matlab). 3. In the uses I am most familiar with, float is the most frequently desired data type. (I guess this may be field specific, especially for empty().) Cheers, Alan Isaac