[Numpy-discussion] "import numpy" is slow

[Andrew Dalke]

On Jul 30, 2008, at 10:51 PM, Alan McIntyre wrote:
> I suppose it's necessary for providing the test() and bench()
> functions in subpackages, but I that isn't a good reason to impose
> upon all users the time required to set up numpy.testing.

I just posted this in my reply to Stéfan, but I'll say it again here.

numpy defines

  numpy.test
  numpy.bench

and

  numpy.testing.test

The two 'test's use the same implementation.  This is a likely  
unneeded duplication and one should be removed. The choice depends on  
if people think the name should be 'numpy.test' or 'numpy.testing.test'.


BTW, where's the on-line documentation for these functions?  They are  
actually bound methods, and I wondered if the doc programs handle  
them okay.

If they should be top-level functions then I would prefer the be  
actual functions to hide an import.  In that case, replace

     from testing import Tester
     test = Tester().test

with

def test(label='fast', verbose=1, extra_argv=None, doctests=False,
              coverage=False, **kwargs):
   from testing import Tester
   Tester.test(label, verbose, extra_argv, doctests, coverage, **kwargs)

or something similar.  This would keep the API unchanged (assuming  
those are important in the top-level) and reduce the number of imports.

Else I would keep/move them in 'numpy.testing' and require that if  
someone wants to use 'test' or 'bench' then to get them after a 'from  
numpy import testing'.


> Thanks for taking the time to find those; I just removed the unused
> glob and delayed the import of shlex, difflib, and inspect in
> numpy.testing.

Thanks!

				Andrew
				dalke@dalkescientific.com