[SciPy-dev] design of a physical quantities package: seeking comments

[Darren Dale]

I just wanted to post an update. I added a constants subpackage in quantities 
which supports the database of physical constants compiled by NIST. It is 
similar to the structure of scipy.constants. I am seriously considering adding 
an additional property to Quantity: uncertainty, which would be used to 
account for and propagate errors or precision. I'm also planning on starting 
unit testing in earnest, as soon as numpy-1.2 is released.

If you are interested, quantities is posted at 
http://dale.chess.cornell.edu/chess-wiki/Quantities . The package is still in 
heavy development and should not be relied on for accuracy or stability of 
API. For example, currently units of joules get simplified into kg m^2/s^2, and 
joules_ is treated as a compound unit and will not be simplified until 
explicitly requested. I am considering swapping the definitions. Any comments?

Darren