[Numpy-discussion] Speeding up numarray -- questions on its design
Travis Oliphant
oliphant at ee.byu.edu
Tue Jan 18 14:26:32 EST 2005
Paul Dubois wrote:
> I haven't followed this discussion in detail but with respect to space
> for 'descriptors', it would simply be foolish to malloc space for
> these. The cost is ridiculous. You simply have to decide how big a
> number of dimensions to allow, make it a clearly findable definition
> in the sources, and dimension everything that big.
>
Thanks for this comment. I can see now that it makes sense as it would
presumably speed up small array creation. Why was this not done in the
original sources?
> Originally when we discussed this we considered 7, since that had been
> (and for all I know still is) the maximum array dimension in Fortran.
> But Jim Huginin needed 11 or something like it for his imaging. I've
> seen 40 in the numarray sources I think.
>
> It seems to me that an application that would care about this space
> (it being, after all, per array object) would be unusual indeed.
>
> If I've misunderstood what you're talking about, never mind. (:->
I think you've understood this part of it and have given good advice.
>
> My advice is to make flexibility secondary to performance. It is
> always possible to layer on flexibility for those who want it.
I like this attitude.
-Travis
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