[Python-Dev] Allocation of shape and strides fields in Py_buffer

[Greg Ewing]

Antoine Pitrou wrote:

> That doesn't work if e.g. you take a slice of a memoryview object, since the
> shape changes in the process.
> See http://bugs.python.org/issue4580

I haven't looked in detail at how memoryview is currently
implemented, but it seems to me that the way it should work
is that whenever you access a slice, it obtains a fresh
Py_Buffer from the underlying object, and does the right
thing based on the shape/strides from that together with
the slice ranges.

The only time it should need to allocate its own shape/strides
is if you request a Py_Buffer from the memoryview itself,
at which time it should obtain a Py_Buffer from the underlying
object, update its own shape/strides and pass them to the
caller. The underlying Py_Buffer lock should be held until
the caller releases the memoryview's Py_Buffer, ensuring
that its shape/strides remains valid for as long as they're
needed.

-- 
Greg