[Numpy-discussion] comments on array iteration behavior as described in current PEP draft

[Ralf Juengling]

>From the current PEP draft:

1-d Iterator 

    A 1-d iterator will be defined that will walk through any array,
    returning a Python scalar at each step.  Order of the iteration
    is the same for contiguous and discontiguous arrays.  The last
    index always varies the fastest

    These 1-d iterators can also be indexed and set.  In which
    case the underlying array will be considered 1-d (but does not
    have to be contiguous in memory). 


Mapping Iterator

    ...
   
(2) if <anything> contains only standard slicing (no index arrays or
    boolean mask arrays), then a view is returned if using 
    a[<standard slicing>] while a copy is returned using the 
    iterator intermediary.  The rule is that iterator slicing
    always produces a copy.




(1) In Python parlance, an iterator is not indexable (cf. the iterator
    protocol). You probably meant to say "sequence"?

(2) Why should the mapiter object not return views under the same
    circumstances that array indexing operations return views? I can
    see this being useful and would favor this behavior.

Ralf