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

[Charles R Harris]

On Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 2:10 PM, Charles R Harris <charlesr.harris at gmail.com
> wrote:

>
>
> 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?
>

That said, I think we should keep things as simple and orthogonal as
possible. If we go this way, I think a subclass with a dictionary would be
the best approach to avoid the heartbreak of creeping featuritis.

Chuck
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