[Baypiggies] suggested meeting topic

[Russ Paielli]

Hello,

I saw ScientificPython a while back, and it looks very impressive but I 
have not used it. It is far more comprehensive than my scalar class, but 
let me briefly explain what I think is the unique contribution of my 
scalar class/package.

I started working on it basically as a training excercize. After I had 
it working, I decided to test it for efficiency. I was appalled at what 
I discovered. Operations on it were two orders of magnitude (~100x) 
slower than the same operations on float types! I considered that 
unacceptable.

I added an option to turn off the unit tracking and checks. However, 
this only sped it up by one order of magnitude, leaving it still an 
order of magnitude slower than built-in types. Apparently, just having 
it as a user-defined class slows it down considerably compared to 
built-in numeric types.

So I decided to try something more innovative. I wanted the user to be 
able to transparently switch from the scalar class to built-in types by 
changing only the import line. The user could then use the scalar class 
during development to catch unit errors, but then easily turn it off and 
revert back to built-in numeric types for efficient production runs.

I also wanted to be able to do it without the need to maintain two 
nearly identical files. This created a unique challenge that I 
eventually solved with a creative use of "execfile," but I won't go into 
the details here.

I welcome anyone to look at what I did and suggest a simpler alternative 
if there is one. All I ask is that you please try to understand the 
problem before you fire back.

Again, you can find the code at http://RussP.us/scalar.htm

Regards,
Russ


Aahz aahz-at-pythoncraft.com |Python Interest Group| wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 08, 2006, Russ Paielli wrote:
> 
>>I have also developed a nifty Python class/package for handling physical 
>>units. I am using it for the conflict alerting system. You can download 
>>it or read about it at
>>
>>http://RussP.us/scalar.htm
> 
> 
> Sounds good!  Check out
> 
> http://starship.python.net/~hinsen/ScientificPython/
> 
> for comparison.