[Numpy-discussion] swig numpy2carray converters

[Georg Holzmann]

Hallo!

> OK, so the key here is the *internal* matrix.  I think you need to 
> provide a way to extract that matrix from the C++ application as a numpy 
> array.  Then you can provide it to your function/method as an INPLACE 
> array.  No new memory will be allocated.
[...]
> The INPLACE typemaps force you to provide the allocated memory.  If you 
> do it by accessing whatever your C++ app has already allocated, you 
> should be fine.

Hm ... I still don't understand that ...
With INPLACE I have to allocate the numpy array before, then pass it to 
my getMyMatrix(my_inplace_numarray) method, then copy the data in that 
method to the my_inplace_numarray - right ?

But I am still not convinced by the INPLACE method - the more natural 
way for me is to simply return the matrix ...
Maybe the most usefull way would be to add also OUT_WITHOUTCOPY macros 
to numpy.i, where the data is allocated with PyArray_FromDimsAndData() ?
(as a "long term" goal ...)

>> Hm ... maybe this is a misunderstanding ? - I mean with 2D output a two
>> dimensional numpy array (simply a matrix).
>> In numpy2carray.i the macros are called ARRAY2_OUT and FARRAY2_OUT.
> 
> I guess my assumption was that in the general case you would want to 
> retain the dimensions as input arguments, since it is logical for ARGOUT 
> typemaps to allocate new memory.  Since swig typemaps only allow 
> numinputs=0 or numinputs=1, this was problematic.  I guess the user 
> could provide a sequence (tuple or list) as the single argument . . . 
> don't know why I didn't think of that before.

Again I do not see the problem - see e.g. ARRAY2_OUT_COPY in 
numpy2carray.i, shouldn't this be the same ?

> Yes, it shouldn't be too hard.  And I like your FARRAY notation for the 
> interface.  So your experience is that the flags and strides are all 
> that have to be set differently?

Yes, so far I had no crash ... ;)

The only thing to do is the following:
-------8<-----------
   PyArrayObject *tmp = (PyArrayObject*)obj;
   tmp->flags = NPY_FARRAY;
   int s = tmp->strides[1];
   tmp->strides[0] = s;
   tmp->strides[1] = s * dim0[0];
-------8<-----------


LG
Georg