[SciPy-Dev] Minimal sparse array interface

[Stefan van der Walt]

Hi everyone,

Several times now, I've needed exactly what is available in scipy.sparse but with an array interface, instead of a matrix interface.  Having such an interface would also simplify matters for libraries such as NetworkX and scikit-learn.

I am aware of pydata.sparse, but that seems like quite a bit more than is needed here (higher dimensions, optimizations via numba; I'm not clear on the linear algebra status).

Would it make sense to add a minimal interface on top of the SciPy sparse matrices that exposes a NumPy array interface?  Eventually that could become the default (although it probably implies a larger refactor of the underlying classes).

Best regards,
Stéfan