[Numpy-discussion] Segmentation Fault with Numeric 24.2 on Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger (8.7.0)

[Christopher Barker]

Daran L. Rife wrote:
> Many thanks for the reply. This was my first attempt
> to build and use numpy;

"numpy" used to be a generic name for the Numerical extensions to 
Python. Now there are three versions:

"Numeric": The original, now at version 24.2 This is probably the last 
version that will be produced.

"numarray": This was designed to be the "next generation" array package. 
It has some nice additional features that Numeric does not have, but is 
missing some as well. It is at version 1.5.1. it may see some bug fix 
releases in the future, but probably won't see any more major development.

"numpy": this is the "grand unification" array package. It is based on 
the Numeric code base, and is designed to have the best features of 
Numeric and numarray, plus some extra good stuff. It is now at version 
1.0beta, with an expected release date for 1.0final sometime this fall. 
It is under active development, the API is pretty stable now, and it 
appears to have the consensus of the numerical python community as the 
"way of the future"

I wrote all that out so that you can be clear which package you are 
having trouble with -- you've used both the term "Numeric" and "numpy" 
in your posts, and there is some confusion.

If you are working on a project that does not need to be released for a 
few months (i.e. after numpy has reached 1.0 final), I'd use numpy, 
rather than Numeric or numarray.

Also: on OS-X, there are far to many ways to build Python. When you 
report a problem, you need to define exactly which python build you are 
using, and this goes beyond python version -- fink? darwinports? 
built-it-from-source? Framework? Universal, etc...

The MacPython community is doing it's best to standardize on the 
Universal Build of 2.4.3 that you can find here:

http://www.pythonmac.org/packages/py24-fat/

There you will also find pre-built packages for Numeric24.2, 
numarray1.5.1, and numpy0.9.8

Have you tried any of those? They should be built against Apple's 
vectLib. There isn't a package for numpy 1.0beta there yet. I may add 
one soon.

 > Interestingly, I can get Numeric version 23.8 to build and
 > run just fine, but it appears that the dotblas (BLAS
 > optimized matrixmultiply/dot/innerproduct) does not properly
 > get built in. Thus, all my matrix operations are -very- slow.

I'm not sure of the dates, but that is probably a version that didn't 
have the check for Apple's vecLib in the setup.py, so it built with the 
built-in lapack-lite instead. You can compare the setup.py files from 
that and newer versions to see how to make it build against vectLib, but 
I suspect if you do that, you'll see the same problems.

Also, please send a small test script that crashes for you, so others 
can test it.

-Chris




-- 
Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
Oceanographer
                                     		
NOAA/OR&R/HAZMAT         (206) 526-6959   voice
7600 Sand Point Way NE   (206) 526-6329   fax
Seattle, WA  98115       (206) 526-6317   main reception

Chris.Barker at noaa.gov