[Numpy-discussion] Should dot return 1x1 matrix as scalar?

[Travis Oliphant]

Paulo J. S. Silva wrote:

>Numpy:
>
>In [27]:i = time.clock(); bench(A,b); time.clock() - i
>Out[27]:10.610000000000014
>
>
>Why is numpy so slow??????
>
>  
>

I think the problem here is that using the properties here to take 
advantage of the nice matrix math stuff is slower than just computing 
the dot product in the fastest possible way with raw arrays.  I've been 
concerned about this for awhile.   The benchmark below makes my point.

While a matrix is a nice thing, I think it will always be slower....  It 
might be possible to speed it up and I'm open to suggestions...

To see what I mean, try this....

import timeit

 t1 = timeit.Timer('c = b.T*A; d=c*b','from numpy import rand,mat; A = 
mat(rand(1000,1000));b = mat(rand(1000,1))')

t2 = timeit.Timer('c = dot(b,A); d=dot(b,c)','from numpy import rand, 
dot; A = rand(1000,1000);b = rand(1000)')

 >>> t1.timeit(100)
6.0398328304290771


 >>> t2.timeit(100)
1.2430641651153564

So, using raw arrays and dot product is 5x faster in this case..... 

-Travis