[Numpy-discussion] Numeric3 status

[Travis Oliphant]

I've gotten Numeric3 (equivalent to Numeric 30.0) into a state where 
multiarray compiles.

It is far from production ready.  Several sections of the code still 
need to be cleaned up to avoid segfaults.  But, the general outline is 
there.   As this is very alpha code (though based on a very mature 
code-base) it is named Numeric3 so it does not clobber your current 
Numeric installation just in case you accidentally do an install.    You 
will have to make sure the correct multiarray is being loaded through 
your sys.path list (or just point your sys.path to the build location of 
Numeric3) if you want to play with it. 

No array_number methods have been loaded yet (there is an interface to 
load your own if you like).   I expect to have ufuncs working with the 
new arrayobject by the end of the month.  Until then, arrayobjects are 
purely structural beasts.

If anybody would like to comment on the design or direction of Numeric 
30.0, your comments are welcome.  If you would like to checkout the code 
through CVS you may do that using

cvs -d:pserver:anonymous at cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/numpy login

press <Enter> when prompted for a password.
 
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous at cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/numpy co -P 
/Numeric3/

A rough design document is available by following the link at  
http://www.scipy.org/wikis/numdesign/num3news

The major goal is:

Numeric 30.0 will have all the important new features of numarray as 
well as maintain or improve on the speed of Numeric for all array types.

Besides this, Numeric 30.0 will not include any FFT's, LinearAlgebra,  
or Random Numbers (these are all provided much more proficiently by 
SciPy).  Masked Arrays, and Matrices will be provided as standard 
subclasses in Python.   Ideally, RecordArrays will be provided in the 
same way.

I will not re-invent code that I can borrow from past versions of 
Numeric and or numarray.

Best wishes,

-Travis Oliphant