[SciPy-User] many test failures on windows 64

[Robin]

On Tue, Jul 6, 2010 at 2:46 PM, Ralf Gommers
<ralf.gommers at googlemail.com> wrote:
> First about the test output: in 0.8.0rc1 all printed warnings, the
> lapack_misaligned and the npyio errors are gone. The boost errors will be
> gone in the final release as well. So you have about 20 errors/failures
> left, mostly located in the sparse and odr modules. Unless you're a heavy
> user of those, no need to move to matlab. You could also decide to look into
> the errors instead of rewriting your code.

Thanks... I depend on the sparse module quite heavily which is why
it's a problem. (my code that uses spsolve is giving incorrect
results, although no errors). It's probably not as bad as I made out
though - I'm sure I can do a fair bit with 32 bit Python, it's just
more difficult to make it accessible to my colleagues (will have to
install 32 bit MATLAB and they will have to pay attention to which one
they are using).

>> I know Windows isn't very popular in the Scipy
>> community, and I try to avoid using it when I can, but it seems
>> Windows 7 is a lot better than previous versions. Also >4GB RAM is now
>> more or less standard for numerical work so I think 64 bit windows
>> really should be supported. In my group a large factor in the decision
>> to use windows was remote desktop and terminal services... For
>> non-command line users there is nothing equivalent that I know of.
>> (There is NX for linux but only 2 users is free - with a small tweak
>> to windows 7 it is possible to have full terminal server behaviour).
>>
>> I wonder how enthought get around this problem with 64 bit EPD on windows?
>
> So why not use EPD? Still many times cheaper than Matlab....

I would suggest that if I had any influence at all on purchasing
decisions, but as a PhD student I don't. Also MATLAB license is paid
for by central IT, whereas any extra software would have to come out
of group grants. If I wasn't the only person using it there might be a
case, but unless I can get it working on Windows I'll continue to be
the only person using it! (bit of a chicken and egg).

Cheers

Robin