[Numpy-discussion] basearray / arraykit

[Christopher Barker]

Travis Oliphant wrote:
> 1) Implement a base-array with no getitem method nor setitem method at all
> 
> 2) Implement a sub-class that supports only creation of data-types 
> corresponding to existing Python scalars (Boolean, Long-based integers, 
> Double-based floats, complex and object types).  Then, all array 
> accesses should return the underlying Python objects.
> This sub-class should also only do view-based indexing (basically it's 
> old Numeric behavior inside of NumPy).

> Item 1) should be pushed for inclusion in 2.6  and possibly even 
> something like 2)

+ sys.maxint

Having even this very basic n-d object in the standard lib would be a 
MAJOR boon to python.

However, as I think about it, one reason I'd really like to see an 
nd-array in python is as a standard way to pass binary data around. 
Right now, I'm working with the GDAL lib for geo-referenced raster 
images, PIL, numpy and wxPython. I'm making a lot of copies to and from 
python strings to pass the binary data back and forth. If all these libs 
used the same nd-array, this would be much more efficient. However, that 
would require non-python data types, most notably a byte (or char, 
whatever) type.

-Chris


-- 
Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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