[Numpy-discussion] Numpy performance boost

[Chris.Barker]

On 8/31/11 3:58 AM, Dieter Weber wrote:
> just wanted to show an example of how python3 + numpy compares with just
> python3 and many other languages and language implementations:
> http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u64q/performance.php?test=mandelbrot#about

hmmm - it would be interesting to see what PyPy does with this.

Also Cython -- can you call that another language? Done right, it should 
be in the C ballpark.

> The python3 program using numpy is #6 and you find it with the
> "interesting alternative" programs on the bottom because it was
> disqualified for doing things differently.

I'm not sure what they mean by "differently" -- but if it's because 
numpy is not a standard part of the language -- who cares.

It's too bad, though -- a lot of people do discount numpy for that 
reason, but as far as I'm concerned, doing numerics without numpy is 
like doing text processing without the string class (type?).

Python would be essentially useless if string were implemented as lists 
or tuples of characters, and everything had to loop through them. So why 
isn't an ndarray considered a first class citizen in python?

-CHB




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