[Numpy-discussion] Regression: in-place operations (possibly intentional)

[Chris Barker]

On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 2:48 PM, Nathaniel Smith <njs at pobox.com> wrote:
> because a += b
> really should be the same as a = a + b.

I don't think that's the case - the inplace operator should be (and
are) more than syntactic sugar -- they have a different meaning and
use (in fact, I think they should't work at all for immutable, sbut i
guess the common increment-a-counter use was too good to pass up)

in the numpy case:

a = a + b

means "make a new array, from the result of adding a and b"

whereas:

a += b

means "change a in place by adding b to it"

In the first case, I'd expect the type of the result to be determined
by both a and b -- casting rules.

In the second case, a should certainly not be a different object, and
should not have a new data buffer, therefor should not change type.

Whereas the general case, there is no assumption that with:

a = b+c

a is the same type as either b or c, but certainly not the same object.

-Chris












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