buglet in interaction between pygame, Numeric & copy in Python 2.3
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I'm sending this buglet-report to the discussion lists for each of pygame, Numeric, and Python-Dev, because it ends with a recommendation for changes (at least to docs) in each of the two extension packages and Python 2.3.1. I'm not a regular user of pygame [I am one of Numeric]. I helped some pygame users find out why their program was breaking (in just one point) when migrating Python 2.2 -> 2.3 (Numeric 23.0, pygame 1.5.6 from cvs snapshot). The problem can be narrowed down the following little buglet.py script: import copy, pygame.display, pygame.surfarray screen = pygame.display.set_mode((640,480),0,24) surf = pygame.surfarray.pixels3d(screen) xx = copy.copy(surf[10:20,30]) With python 2.2, this runs without errors. With 2.3: Traceback (most recent call last): File "buglet.py", line 6, in ? xx = copy.copy(surf[10:20,30]) File "/usr/local/lib/python2.3/copy.py", line 101, in copy raise Error("un(shallow)copyable object of type %s" % cls) copy.Error: un(shallow)copyable object of type <type 'array'> Workaround for the problem: add an "import Numeric" at the top of buglet.py. Reason for the problem: copy.copy uses different mechanisms in 2.3 vs 2.2 for shallow copies of Numeric.array instances. In 2.2, it looked for a method __copy__ on the instance, found it, and happily used it. In 2.3, it relies on getting a 'reductor' function from the copy_reg.dispatch_table. Module Numeric installs such a reductor *WHEN IMPORTED* -- but pygame never imports it even though functions such as the above-used pixels3d do return instances of Numeric.array. So, Numeric.py doesn't run, and therefore cannot install its pickle_array function with the copy_reg module. Suggested fix in pygame: I would suggest making sure Numeric has been imported when Numeric.array instances are to be returned. That's up to the pygame maintainers, of course; at the very least, I think this issue should be mentioned in pygame's docs (asking the user to make sure "import Numeric" happens in any pygame-using program that manipulates such instances). Suggested fix in Numeric: Numeric cannot DO anything much about this issue, I think, but it should probably *mention* (in the docs regarding interfacing to Numeric from other C-coded extensions) that other extensions should make sure Numeric is _imported_ (from a Python POV), if said extensions return instances of Numeric.array, to ensure such instances have full functionality (and in particular shallow copyability). Suggested fix in Python: a mention in the "what's new" document, section "porting to Python 2.3", is probably warranted -- not so much about Numeric and/or pygame extensions per se, though these are both popular 3rd party extensions, but rather the excellent changes in the shallow copy mechanics, which may indeed require code changes on the part of extension authors. Thanks, Alex
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Alex Martelli