[Numpy-discussion] Half baked C API?

[Michiel Jan Laurens de Hoon]

Ralf Juengling wrote:
> I believe that, currently, when somebody decides to move a 
> significant portion of numerical code from Python to C, he or 
> she will likely end up writing (specialized versions of) things 
> like 'sum', and 'dot'. But shouldn't those things be provided by
> an programming environment for scientific computing? 
> 
> Does Scipy have, for instance, a documented C interface to blas 
> and lapack functions? You answer, "Well, there is CBLAS and
> CLAPACK already." Yes, but by the same argument that pushes 
> Travis to reconsider what should go into scipy_core: it would be
> nice to be able to use the blas_lite and lapack_lite functions
> if they cover my needs, and to tell my client, "All else you
> need to have installed is Python and scipy_core."
> 
I am not sure about the particular case Ralf is considering, but in the 
past I have been in the situation that I wanted to access algorithms in 
Numerical Python (such as blas or lapack) at the C level and I couldn't 
find a way to do it. Note that for ranlib, the header files are actually 
installed as Numeric/ranlib.h, but as far as I know it is not possible 
to link a C extension module to Numerical Python's ranlib at the C 
level. So I would welcome what Ralf is suggesting.

--Michiel