[Numpy-discussion] subclassing ndaray

[Colin J. Williams]

Travis Oliphant wrote:

> Stefan van der Walt wrote:
>
>>> The __init__ and __new__ methods are not called because they may 
>>> have arbitrary signatures.  Instead,  the __array_finalize__ method 
>>> is always called.  So, you should use that instead of __init__.
>>>   
>>
> This is now true in SVN.  Previously, __array_finalize__ was not 
> called if the "parent" was NULL.  However, now, it is still called 
> with None as the value of the first argument.
>
> Thus __array_finalize__ will be called whenever ndarray.__new__(<some 
> subclass>,...) is called.

Why this change in style from the the common Python idom of __new__, 
__init__, with the same signature to __new__, __array_finalize__ with 
possibly different signatures?

Incidentally, what are the signatures?  The doc string is empty:
[Dbg]>>> _n.ndarray.__array_finalize__.__doc__
[Dbg]>>>

Colin W.