[Numpy-discussion] NumPy 1.2.0b2 released

[Robert Kern]

On Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 02:30, Stéfan van der Walt <stefan at sun.ac.za> wrote:
> 2008/8/15 Travis E. Oliphant <oliphant at enthought.com>:
>> So, what is the attitude of people here?   Here's my take:
>
> I wonder if we are going about this process the right way.  We will
> forever be adjusting imports to improve load times.  Why don't we
> provide an alternate API, something like numpy.api from which you can
> import exactly what you want?  We can disable populating the full
> numpy namespace by exporting an environment variable or setting some
> flag.  This way, importing numpy is instantaneous, whilst our
> interactive users still get the full benefit of having everything
> available?

The devil is in the details. What exactly do you propose? When we
discussed this last time, the participants more or less agreed that
environment variables could cause more fragility than they're worth.
It also breaks the first time you try to import a numpy-using library
that was not written with this in mind. Basically, you're stuck with
only code that you've written.

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless
enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as
though it had an underlying truth."
 -- Umberto Eco