[Numpy-discussion] numarray unfriendly to user defined types

[Tim Hochberg]

Hi Todd,

There are three ways to spell "defer to me" on the table (the precise 
details of
each spelling are, of course, still open for debate):

   1.  numarray.defer_to(my_class)

   2. class ArrayLike(numarray.DeferTo):
         # ...

   3. class ArrayLike:
         _numarray_defer_to = True
        # ...

I'd prefer a non-registration solution since those are both 
aesthetically displeasing and leave you open to the situation where a 
class in module A gets registered by module B, but module C expects it 
not to be registered and everything breaks. Not all that likely, I 
admit, but let's avoid the registration version if we can.

The other two solutions are almost equivalent. The one case where 3 has 
an edge over 2 is if I have an object (not a class), I could potentially 
set a _numarray_defer_to on the object before passing it to numarray 
without having to mess with the class
of the object at all. YAGNI, though.

The advantage of 2 in my view is that it *does* force you to subclass. 
With 3, there will be the temptation to poke into some other  module and 
set _numarray_defer_to on some poor unsuspecting class. This has the 
same disadvantage as 1, that it could confuse some other poor 
unsuspecting module. The correct way to do get a deferred class from a 
third party module is to import and subclass. This works with either 2 
or 3::

  import A

  class Klass2(a.Klass, numarray.DeferTo):   #2
     #...

  class Klass3(a.Klass): #3 the good way
      _numarray_defer_to = True
     # ...

   A.Klass._numarray_defer_to = True #3 the evil way.

 Version 2 is cleaner and encourages you to do the right thing, so I'd 
prefer that solution.


regards,

-tim




Todd Miller wrote:

>On Mon, 2003-09-22 at 19:27, Tim Hochberg wrote:
>
>  
>
>>I actually have no idea how you plan to make keyword arguments work 
>>here, perhaps you could explain that in more detail. Metaclasses are 
>>overkill, but a mixin, marker class could be used. That is, when 
>>designing a class for use with numarray, one would derive a class from a 
>>marker class in numarray::
>>
>>   class MyArrayLikeClass(numarray.DeferToMe):
>>       ....
>>
>>Hmmm. That's not too bad. Todd, what do you think about using this logic::
>>
>>    def __mul__(self, operand):
>>        if isinstance(operand, DeferToMe):
>>            operand.__rmul__(self)
>>        else:
>>            self.__mul__(operand)
>>
>>
>>    
>>
>
>I like the core idea a lot.  My only doubt is whether forcing the use of
>inheritance is appropriate / a good thing.  We might also consider
>spelling it like:
>
>class MyArrayLikeClass:
>	_numarray_defer_to_me = True
>
>class NumArray:
>	def __mul__(self, operand):
>		if hasattr(operand, "_numarray_defer_to_me"):
>			return operand.__rmul__(self)
>		else:	
>			return ufunc.multiply(self, operand)
>
>  
>
>>The only case where I see a potential problem is an old-style 
>>C-extenstion that can't be subclassed. I think that might be a case of 
>>YAGNI though. 
>>    
>>
>
>Sounds YAGNI to me.
>
>  
>
>>Avoiding registration is appealing.
>>    
>>
>
>Good to have this seconded.
>
>  
>
>>-tim
>>
>>    
>>
>
>All in all, great ideas!
>
>Todd
>
>  
>