[Numpy-discussion] Re: Trying out Numeric3

[Travis Oliphant]

David M. Cooke wrote:

>Travis Oliphant <oliphant at ee.byu.edu> writes:
>
>  
>
>>Michiel Jan Laurens de Hoon wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Travis Oliphant wrote:
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>>>Michiel Jan Laurens de Hoon wrote:
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>>>Another warning was that PyArrayObject's "dimensions" doesn't seem
>>>>>to be an int array any more.
>>>>>          
>>>>>
>>>>Yes.   To allow for dimensions that are bigger than 32-bits,
>>>>dimensions and strides are (intp *).  intp is a signed integer with
>>>>sizeof(intp) == sizeof(void *).  On 32-bit systems, the warning
>>>>will not cause problems.  We could worry about fixing it by
>>>>typedefing intp to int (instead of the current long for 32-bit
>>>>systems).
>>>>        
>>>>
>
>Why not use Py_intptr_t? It's defined by the Python C API already (in
>pyport.h).
>  
>
Sounds good to me.  I wasn't aware of it (intp or intptr is shorter 
though).

>An array of longs would seem to be the best solution. On the two
>64-bit platforms I have access to (an Athlon 64 and some Alphas),
>sizeof(long) == 8, while my two 32-bit platforms (Intel x86 and
>PowerPC) have sizeof(long) == 4.
>  
>
I thought about this, but what about the MS Window compilers where long 
is still 4 byte (even on a 64-bit system),  so that long long is the 
size of  a pointer on that system.   I just think we should just create 
an integer that will be big enough and start using it.

>For comparison, here's a list of sizes for various platforms
>
>                  32-bit  32-bit  64-bit    64-bit
>                  x86     PPC     Athlon64  Alpha
>                  (Linux) (OS X)  (Linux)   (Tru64)
>char              1       1       1         1
>short             2       2       2         2
>int               4       4       4         4
>long              4       4       8         8
>long long         8       8       8         8
>size_t            4       4       8         8
>
>float             4       4       4         4
>double            8       8       8         8
>long double       12      8       16        16
>
>void *            4       4       8         8
>function pointer  4       4       8         8
>  
>

Nice table,  thanks...

>Note the three different sizes of long double (oh, fun). 
>
Yeah, I know,  I figure people who use long doubles will

>Also note
>that size_t (which is the return type of sizeof()) is not int in
>general (although lots of programs treat it like that).
>
>Using long for the dimensions also means that converting to and from
>Python ints for indices is transparent, and won't fail, as Python ints
>are C longs. This is the cause of several of the 64-bit bugs I fixed
>in the latest Numeric release (23.8).
>  
>
The conversion code has been updated so that it won't fail if the sizes 
are actually the same for your platform.

>[I'd help with Numeric3, but not until it compiles with fewer than
>several hundred warnings -- I *really* don't want to wade through all
>that.]
>  
>
Do the warnings really worry you that much?   Most are insignificant.  
You could help implement a method or two pretty easily.  Or help with 
the ufunc module.  

-Travis