[SciPy-dev] Now new svn of numpy is ready

[Fernando Perez]

Arnd Baecker wrote:

> I don't buy this argument about benchmarking, as numpy can be
> installed with and without ATLAS (ACML/MKL/scsl/...).
> Depending on this, very different results will show up.

Yes, but that's still something that only affects numpy, at install time: the 
installation conditions are a known, fixed quantity (just like the compiler 
used, optimization flags, etc).

The other one means that on Monday your code runs one way, on Tuesday (when 
you de-install scipy, for whatever reason) it mysteriously runs slower, and 
then on Wednesday (when you reinstall scipy from SVN, which happens to have a 
subtle bug that day) it just segfaults.  And yet nowhere are you calling 
scipy.  It's even better when the above scipy changes were made by someone 
else in your lab with root access, and you didn't even know they were 
happening.  Fun, eh?

I know that the above sounds silly, but in real life a less absurd set of 
circumstances can still lead to hair-pulling frustration when faced with this 
kind of hidden side effect setup.

Cheers,

f