[Numpy-discussion] Array Protocol change for Python 2.6

[Travis Oliphant]

One of the hopes for the Summer of Code project involving getting the 
multidimensional array object into Python 2.6 is advertisement of the 
array protocol or array interface.

I think one way to simplify the array protocol is simply have only one 
attribute that is looked to to provide access to the protocol.   I would 
like to deprecate all the array protocol attributes except for

__array_struct__   (perhaps we could call this __array_interface__ but 
I'm happy keeping the name the same too.)

If __array_struct__ is a CObject then it behaves as it does now.

If __array_struct__ is a tuple then each entry in the tuple is one of 
the items currently obtained by an additional attribute access (except 
the first item is always an integer indicating the version of the 
protocol --- unused entries are None).

This should simplify the array interface and allow easier future 
changes.  It should also simplify NumPy so that it doesn't have to check 
for multiple attributes on arbitrary objects.

I would like to eliminate all the other array protocol attributes before 
NumPy 1.0 (and re-label those such as __array_data__ that are useful in 
other contexts --- like ctypes).

Comments?



-Travis