[Numpy-discussion] copy on demand

Scott Ransom ransom at physics.mcgill.ca
Mon Jun 24 17:06:11 EDT 2002


Hi Konrad,

On Sun, Jun 23, 2002 at 10:20:35AM +0200, Konrad Hinsen wrote:
> > be even more inefficient. If I really had large amounts of code that needed
> > that conversion, I'd be tempted to write such a function with an additional
> > twist: have it monitor the input argument type whenever the program is run and
> 
> I have large amounts of code that would need conversion. However, it
> is code that myself and about 100 other users rely on for their daily
> work, so it won't be the subject of empirical fixing of any kind.
> Either there will be an automatic procedure that is guaranteed to keep
> the code working, or there won't be any update.

I think you are painting an overly bleak picture -- and one
that is certainly more black and white than reality.  I am one
of those 100 users and I would (will) certainly go through the
code that I use on a daily basis (and the other code that I use
less frequently) -- just as I have every time there is an
update to the Python core or your code.  Hell, some of those
30000 line of "your" code are actually _my_ code.

And out of those 100 other users, I'd be willing to bet a beer
or three that at least a couple would help to track down
incompatibilities as well.  Many (perhaps even most) of the
problems will be able to be spotted by simply running the test
codes provided with the individual modules.

By generously releasing your code, you have made it possible
for your code to become part of my -- and many others --
"standard library".  And it is a part that I don't want to get
rid of.

I truly hope that this incompatibility (i.e. copy vs view) and
the time that it will take to update older code will not cause
many potentially beneficial (or at least requested)
features/changes to be dropped.

Scott

-- 
Scott M. Ransom              Address:  McGill Univ. Physics Dept.
Phone:  (514) 398-6492                 3600 University St., Rm 338
email:  ransom at physics.mcgill.ca       Montreal, QC  Canada H3A 2T8 
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