[Numpy-discussion] Addition of a dict object to all NumPy objects

[Charles R Harris]

On Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 1:58 PM, Travis E. Oliphant
<oliphant at enthought.com>wrote:

>
> Hello all,
>
> While we are on the subject of C-API changes,  I've noticed that quite a
> few of the sub-classes of ndarray are constructed to basically add
> meta-information to the array.
>
> What if the base-class ndarray grew a dict object at it's end to hold
> meta information.
>
> Naturally, several questions arise:
>
> 1) How would you access the dictionary?  (i.e. __dict__?)
>
> 2) Would attribute setting and getting retrieve from this dictionary
> (how are conflicts managed).
>      * I think I would prefer a dict attribute on the numpy array that
> gets and sets into the dictionary.
>
> 3) Are the additional 4-8 bytes too expensive
>

One of the problems with numarray was the time taken to allocate small
arrays. Would adding a dictionary slow down the allocation of numpy arrays?

Chuck
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