ANN: numarray-0.7

[Todd Miller]

Release Notes for numarray-0.7

Numarray is an array processing package designed to efficiently
manipulate large multi-dimensional arrays.  Numarray is modelled after
Numeric and features c-code generated from python template scripts,
the capacity to operate directly on arrays in files, and improved type
promotions.

I. ENHANCEMENTS

1. Object Arrays

numarray now has an object array facility.  numarray.objects provides
array indexing and ufuncs for fixed length collections of arbitrary
Python objects.

2. Merger of NumArray/ComplexArray classes

Numarray's NumArray and ComplexArray classes have been unified into a
single class.  Thus, a single base class can be used to derive array
classes which operate on integer, real or complex numbers.  Thanks to
Colin Williams for this suggestion.

3. Indexing improvements

The implementation of numarray's indexing has been simplified and
improved.  Ad-hoc logic for getting single array elements fast has
been replaced by a full conversion to C of the top level of numarray's
Python indexing code.  The resulting code is simpler, prototyped in
Python, and adds an additional kind of indexing which occurs entirely
in C for speed: sub-arrays.  Slicing and array indexing, however,
still involve significant amounts of Python code.

4. IEEE Special Value Constants

Standard constants for nan, plus_inf, minus_inf, and inf have been
added to numarray.ieeespecial making it easier to assign IEEE special
values to arrays in addition to finding or replacing special values.

5. Better Numeric interoperability  (wxPyPlot port)

numarray-0.7 addresses a couple compatibility and speed issues which
hindered numarray's use with wxPyPlot.  numarray now works fine with
the wxPyPlot demos by changing "import Numeric" to "import numarray as
Numeric".

II. BUGS FIXED

See
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=450446&group_id=1369&func=browse
for more details.

793421		PyArray_INCREF / PyArray_XDECREF deprecated
791354		Integer overflow bugs?
785458		Crash subclassing the NumArray class
784866		astype() fails sometimes
779755		Mac OS 10 installation problem
740035		Possible problem with dot

III. CAUTIONS

1. numarray extension writers should note that the documented use of
PyArray_INCREF and PyArray_XDECREF (in numarray) has been found to be
incompatible with Numeric and has therefore been deprecated.  numarray
wrapper functions using PyArray_INCREF and PyArray_XDECREF should
switch to ordinary Py_INCREF and Py_XDECREF.

2. Writers of numarray subclasses should note that the "protected"
_getitem/_setitem interface  for NDArray has changed.

WHERE
-----------

Numarray-0.7 windows executable installers, source code, and manual is
here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=1369

Numarray is hosted by Source Forge in the same project which hosts
Numeric:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/numpy/

The web page for Numarray information is at:

http://stsdas.stsci.edu/numarray/index.html

Trackers for Numarray Bugs, Feature Requests, Support, and Patches are
at
the Source Forge project for NumPy at:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=1369

REQUIREMENTS
------------------------------

numarray-0.7 requires Python 2.2.2 or greater.  


AUTHORS, LICENSE
------------------------------

Numarray was written by Perry Greenfield, Rick White, Todd Miller, JC
Hsu, Paul Barrett, Phil Hodge at the Space Telescope Science
Institute.  Thanks go to Jochen Kupper of the University of North
Carolina for his work on Numarray and for porting the Numarray manual
to TeX format.  Thanks also to Edward C. Jones, Francesc Alted, Paul
Dubois, Eric Jones, Travis Oliphant, Pearu Peterson, Colin Williams,
and everyone who has contributed with comments and feedback.

Numarray is made available under a BSD-style License.  See LICENSE.txt
in the source distribution for details.

-- 
Todd Miller             jmiller@stsci.edu