[Numpy-discussion] [Announce] Numpy 1.3.0b1

Wed Mar 18 22:43:29 EDT 2009

Hi,

I am pleased to announce the release of the first beta for numpy
1.3.0. You can find source tarballs and installers for both Mac OS X
and Windows on the sourceforge page:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/numpy/

The release note for the 1.3.0 release are below,

The Numpy developers

=========================
NumPy 1.3.0 Release Notes
=========================

This minor includes numerous bug fixes, official python 2.6 support, and
several new features such as generalized ufuncs.

Highlights
==========

Python 2.6 support
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Python 2.6 is now supported on all previously supported platforms, including
windows.

http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0361/

Generalized ufuncs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://projects.scipy.org/numpy/ticket/887

Experimental Windows 64 bits support
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Numpy can now be built on windows 64 bits (amd64 only, not IA64), with both MS
compilers and mingw-w64 compilers:

This is *highly experimental*: DO NOT USE FOR PRODUCTION USE. See INSTALL.txt,
Windows 64 bits section for more information on limitations and how to build it
by yourself.

New features
============

Formatting issues
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Float formatting is now handled by numpy instead of the C runtime: this enables
locale independent formatting, more robust fromstring and related methods.
Special values (inf and nan) are also more consistent across platforms (nan vs
IND/NaN, etc...), and more consistent with recent python formatting work (in
2.6 and later).

Nan handling in max/min
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The maximum/minimum ufuncs now reliably propagate nans. If one of the
arguments is a nan, then nan is retured. This affects np.min/np.max, amin/amax
and the array methods max/min. New ufuncs fmax and fmin have been added to deal
with non-propagating nans.

Nan handling in sign
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ufunc sign now returns nan for the sign of anan.

New ufuncs
~~~~~~~~~~

#. fmax - same as maximum for integer types and non-nan floats. Returns the
   non-nan argument if one argument is nan and returns nan if both arguments
   are nan.
#. fmin - same as minimum for integer types and non-nan floats. Returns the
   non-nan argument if one argument is nan and returns nan if both arguments
   are nan.
#. deg2rad - converts degrees to radians, same as the radians ufunc.
#. rad2deg - converts radians to degrees, same as the degrees ufunc.
#. log2 - base 2 logarithm.
#. exp2 - base 2 exponential.
#. logaddexp - add numbers stored as logarithms and return the logarithm
   of the result.
#. logaddexp2 - add numbers stored as base 2 logarithms and return the base 2
   logarithm of the result result.

Masked arrays
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TODO

gfortran support on windows
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gfortran can now be used as a fortran compiler for numpy on windows, even when
the C compiler is Visual Studio (VS 2005 and above; VS 2003 will NOT work).
Gfortran + Visual studio does not work on windows 64 bits (but gcc + gfortran
does). It is unclear whether it will be possible to use gfortran and visual
studio at all on x64.

Arch option for windows binary
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Automatic arch detection can now be bypassed from the command line for
the superpack installed:

	numpy-1.3.0-superpack-win32.exe /arch=nosse

will install a numpy which works on any x86, even if the running computer
supports SSE set.

Deprecated features
===================

Histogram
~~~~~~~~~

The semantics of histogram has been modified to fix long-standing issues
with outliers handling. The main changes concern

#. the definition of the bin edges, now including the rightmost edge, and
#. the handling of upper outliers, now ignored rather than tallied in the
   rightmost bin.

The previous behavior is still accessible using `new=False`, but this is
deprecated, and will be removed entirely in 1.4.0.

Documentation changes
=====================

A lot of documentation improvements.

New C API
=========

Multiarray API
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following functions have been added to the multiarray C API:

	* PyArray_GetEndianness: to get runtime endianness

New defines
~~~~~~~~~~~

New public C defines are available for ARCH specific code through
numpy/npy_cpu.h:

	* NPY_CPU_X86: x86 arch (32 bits)
        * NPY_CPU_AMD64: amd64 arch (x86_64, NOT Itanium)
        * NPY_CPU_PPC: 32 bits ppc
        * NPY_CPU_PPC64: 64 bits ppc
        * NPY_CPU_SPARC: 32 bits sparc
        * NPY_CPU_SPARC64: 64 bits sparc
        * NPY_CPU_S390: S390
        * NPY_CPU_PARISC: PARISC

New macros for CPU endianness has been added as well (see internal changes
below for details):

	* NPY_BYTE_ORDER: integer
	* NPY_LITTLE_ENDIAN/NPY_BIG_ENDIAN defines

Those provide portable alternatives to glibc endian.h macros for platforms
without it.

Portable NAN, INFINITY, etc...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

npy_math.h now makes available several portable macro to get NAN, INFINITY:

        * NPY_NAN: equivalent to NAN, which is a GNU extension
        * NPY_INFINITY: equivalent to C99 INFINITY
        * NPY_PZERO, NPY_NZERO: positive and negative zero respectively

Corresponding single and extended precision macros are available as well. All
references to NAN, or home-grown computation of NAN on the fly have been
removed for consistency.

Internal changes
================

numpy.core math configuration revamp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This should make the porting to new platforms easier, and more robust. In
particular, the configuration stage does not need to execute any code on the
target platform, which is a first step toward cross-compilation.

http://projects.scipy.org/numpy/browser/trunk/doc/neps/math_config_clean.txt

umath refactor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A lot of code cleanup for umath/ufunc code (charris).

Improvements to build warnings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Numpy can now build with -W -Wall without warnings

http://projects.scipy.org/numpy/browser/trunk/doc/neps/warnfix.txt

Separate core math library
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The core math functions (sin, cos, etc... for basic C types) have been put into
a separate library; it acts as a compatibility layer, to support most C99 maths
functions (real only for now). The library includes platform-specific fixes for
various maths functions, such as using those versions should be more robust
than using your platform functions directly. The API for existing functions is
exactly the same as the C99 math functions API; the only difference is the npy
prefix (npy_cos vs cos).

The core library will be made available to any extension in 1.4.0.

CPU arch detection
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

npy_cpu.h defines numpy specific CPU defines, such as NPY_CPU_X86, etc...
Those are portable across OS and toolchains, and set up when the header is
parsed, so that they can be safely used even in the case of cross-compilation
(the values is not set when numpy is built), or for multi-arch binaries (e.g.
fat binaries on Max OS X).

npy_endian.h defines numpy specific endianness defines, modeled on the glibc
endian.h. NPY_BYTE_ORDER  is equivalent to BYTE_ORDER, and one of
NPY_LITTLE_ENDIAN or NPY_BIG_ENDIAN is defined. As for CPU archs, those are set
when the header is parsed by the compiler, and as such can be used for
cross-compilation and multi-arch binaries.