[Numpy-discussion] Is python 3 supported or not?

[Chris Barker]

On 1/13/2011 10:49 AM, David Cortesi wrote:
> I would like to point out that the wikipedia article on numpy says,
> "The release version 1.5 of NumPy is compatible with Python versions
> 2.4–2.7 and Python 3," citing the release note of september 2010,
> which itself opens with the following lines:

 > There is an obvious disconnect here. Is it or isn't it?

Support is not an absolute thing -- Python 2 is certainly better 
supported at this point in many ways, but yes, numpy works with Python3

> the large number of packages at PyPI
> that depend on numpy. Numpy is a major gateway, or bottleneck, on the
> way to Python 3.

yes, but I doubt that many (any) of the packages that require numpy 
don't work on 2.0. Indeed, many of them probably are not yet ported to 
3. Personally, I can't move 'till PIL and wxPython are ported, and maybe 
Pylons (Pyramid), too.

> I came looking for numpy because I want to work with
> an audio package, and all the audio packages at PyPI seem to have
> numpy dependencies. Ditto the packages for dealing with FITS data
> format, etc. etc.

I'd make darn sure EVERYTHING you think you'll need is py3 compatible.

> As to using Activestate's versus python.org's distro, *regardless* of
> which I use, the package will end up located in
> /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/*. It will not be installed in
> /System/Library/etc. as the Apple distribution is; but it WILL be
> located at a known location with an executable named Python under
> Versions/Current.

That's just a link -- I Hope the actuall package is not in exactly the 
same place as the python,org binary gets installed -- but maybe it is -- 
in the past, they have generally been pretty compatible.

There are way, way too many ways to get Python on the Mac -- varierty is 
good, but it is very confusing for newbies, and difficult for anyone 
that wants to distribute binaries. In general, the community tried to 
build binaries for the python.org builds, so there are advantages there.

> As to why I'm using Python 3, it's because I'm starting a new project
> with no prior dependencies and want the current and future language --
> which is now TWO FRAKKIN' YEARS OLD! -- but that's a rant for another
> time.

umm isn't that amazing, py3 has only been around for two years, and 
numpy and many other packages already support it! Fabulous!

How long has python been around? how long numpy (and numeric before it?)

How much work have you done to port things to Py3?

 > you should just install
> NumPy from source if you really want to use Python 3. That works
> for me fine on Mac OS X 10.6 (using both Python 3.1 and the
> current beta of Python 3.2, both themselves compiled from source).

yup -- as it happens, Apple delivers LAPACK, and has a standard, and 
freely available compiler -- building numpy on OS-X is a piece of cake.

-Chris

-- 
Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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