[Numpy-discussion] Numpy/Cython Google Summer of Code project idea

[Jon Wright]

Christopher Barker wrote:
> By the way, I know Greg Ewing was asked about better support for numpy 
> arrays in Pyrex, and he said "I'm *definitely* not going to
> re-implement C++ templates!" -- is there talk of creating a way to write 
> extensions that could operate on numpy arrays of arbitrary type with Cython?

Don't forget that one of the advantages of having data type information 
is that you can choose an algorithm accordingly. For example, large 
arrays of the smaller integer types can be efficiently sorted using 
histograms. The idea separating the algorithm from the datatype means 
that (ultra-fast-optimised) things like blas, fftw etc become quite hard 
to program.

This is straying far from the discussion of a summer of code project, 
which seemed like a great idea.

Jon