[Numpy-discussion] numpy1.2 : make sorts unary ufuncs

[Charles R Harris]

On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 11:23 PM, Robert Kern <robert.kern at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sat, Apr 19, 2008 at 12:18 AM, Charles R Harris
> <charlesr.harris at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 11:02 PM, Robert Kern <robert.kern at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > > On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 11:58 PM, Charles R Harris
> > >
> > > <charlesr.harris at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 10:53 PM, Robert Kern <robert.kern at gmail.com
> >
> > wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 11:47 PM, Charles R Harris
> > > > > <charlesr.harris at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > > The signature for a ufunc is something like
> > > > > >
> > > > > > @TYPE at _@kind@(char **args, intp *dimensions, intp *steps, void
> > *func)
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Which contains all the info necessary to do a sort. Means and
> other
> > such
> > > > > > functions could also be implemented that way.
> > > > >
> > > > > axis?
> > > >
> > > > I believe Travis is already selecting an axis to get the best cache
> > usage,
> > > > so it just needs a tweak. Axis = None is the special case.
> > >
> > > So what is the benefit here? Why bother?
> >
> > Code reuse and a unified concept. Why duplicate all the complication as
> we
> > do now? Argsorts become binary ufuncs, etc. Besides, I'm trying to track
> > down a ufunc call bug, feeling annoyed, and it would be nice to have all
> the
> > crap in one location so we can work on cleaning it up.
>
> I have a suspicion that tweaking ufuncs to allow the special case of
> sorting will negate the benefits. It smells like an abuse of the
> machinery rather than a natural merging of similar functionality.


Don't think so, the ufunc inner loops are all over a given axis with the
other indices varying. I think anything that processes arrays along an axis
is a natural for the framework. And if we add bells and whistles, like
threads, it might be nice to keep everything in one place.

Chuck
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