[Numpy-discussion] Fwd: Collection.findTransformation() never stops

[Travis Oliphant]

Dr. Seth Olsen wrote:
>
> Hi Bill,
>
> MMTK has not made the conversion over to the new numpy module.  It is 
> built against the old Numeric code, and the word from its developers 
> is that changing to numpy cannot be a priority now.
>
My suggestion is to *kindly* put pressure on them. 

I've spent at least a hundred hours making it easy for people to port 
Numeric and Numarray-built code to NumPy.    Because of this, I'm a 
little bit frustrated by this kind of response.  I understand it will 
take time for people to migrate, but it really does not take that long 
to port code to use NumPy.   

I've offered to do it for any open source code.   In fact, I just spent 
30 minutes and ported both Scientific Python and MMTK to use numpy.    
I'll send you a patch if you want.     It is true, that the result needs 
to be better tested, but I'm confident that any errors which might 
remain in the compatibility layer will be easily fixable (and we need 
people who are willing to do the tests to fix them).

I'd rather not do this, but if necessary we can easily create an SVN 
tree of third-party packages ported to use NumPy if the package-owners 
are not willing to do it.   Keeping Numeric packages around except for 
legacy systems will only make things harder.

I'll repeat the same offer I've made before:  I will gladly give my book 
and my help to any open source library author who will make porting to 
NumPy a priority for their package.  Note, however, my (free) ports to 
use NumPy do not use any "numerix-style" layer.  The library is 
converted to work with NumPy alone.  In other words, I won't spend any 
more "spare" time supporting 3 array packages.

Best regards,

-Travis