[Numpy-discussion] Silent Broadcasting considered harmful

Simon Wood sgwoodjr at gmail.com
Sun Feb 8 16:39:45 EST 2015


On Sun, Feb 8, 2015 at 4:24 PM, Stefan Reiterer <domors at gmx.net> wrote:

> I don't think this is a good comparison, especially since broadcasting is
> a feature not a necessity ...
> It's more like turning off/on driving assistance.
>
> And as already mentioned: other matrix languages also allow it, but they
> warn about it's usage.
> This has indeed it's merits.
>  *Gesendet:* Sonntag, 08. Februar 2015 um 22:17 Uhr
> *Von:* "Charles R Harris" <charlesr.harris at gmail.com>
> *An:* "Discussion of Numerical Python" <numpy-discussion at scipy.org>
> *Betreff:* Re: [Numpy-discussion] Silent Broadcasting considered harmful
>
>
> On Sun, Feb 8, 2015 at 2:14 PM, Stefan Reiterer <domors at gmx.net> wrote:
>>
>>   Yeah I'm aware of that, that's the reason why I suggested a warning
>> level as an alternative.
>> Setting no warnings as default would avoid breaking existing code.
>>  *Gesendet:* Sonntag, 08. Februar 2015 um 22:08 Uhr
>> *Von:* "Eelco Hoogendoorn" <hoogendoorn.eelco at gmail.com>
>> *An:* "Discussion of Numerical Python" <numpy-discussion at scipy.org>
>> *Betreff:* Re: [Numpy-discussion] Silent Broadcasting considered harmful
>> > I personally use Octave and/or Numpy  for several years now and never
>> ever needed braodcasting.
>> But since it is still there there will be many users who need it, there
>> will be some use for it.
>>
>>  Uhm, yeah, there is some use for it. Im all for explicit over implicit,
>> but personally current broadcasting rules have never bothered me, certainly
>> not to the extent of justifying massive backwards compatibility violations.
>> Take It from someone who relies on broadcasting for every other line of
>> code.
>>
>>
>
> It's how numpy works. It would be like getting into your car and being
> warned that it has wheels.
>
> Chuck
>   _______________________________________________ NumPy-Discussion
> mailing list NumPy-Discussion at scipy.org
> http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion
>
>
I agree, I do not think this is a good comparison. All cars have wheels,
there are no surprises there. This is more like a car that decides to do
something completely different from everything that you learned about in
driving school.

I find the broadcasting aspect of Numpy a turn off. If I go to add a 1x3
vector to a 3x1 vector, I want the program to warn me or error out. I don't
want it to do something under the covers that has no mathematical basis or
definition. Also, Octave may provide a warning, but Matlab errors
out..."Matrix dimensions must agree". Which they must, at least in my world.
_______________________________________________

> NumPy-Discussion mailing list
> NumPy-Discussion at scipy.org
> http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/numpy-discussion/attachments/20150208/023a6b00/attachment.html>


More information about the NumPy-Discussion mailing list