[Numpy-discussion] Should ndarray be a context manager?

[Sturla Molden]

Chris Barker <chris.barker at noaa.gov> wrote:

> Anyway, the point is that if we wanted this to be a
> used-more-than-very-rarely in only very special cases feature de-allocating
> an array's data buffer), then ndarray would need to grow a check for an
> invalid buffer on access.

One would probably need something like Java JNI where an array can be
"locked" by the C code. 

But nevertheless, what I suggested is not inherently worse than this C++
code:

    {
        std::vector<double> a(n);
        // do something with a
    }
    // references to std::vector a might still exist

In C this is often known as the "dangling pointer" problem.


Sturla