[Numpy-discussion] NumPy 1.2.0b2 released

[Anne Archibald]

2008/8/15 Andrew Dalke <dalke at dalkescientific.com>:
> On Aug 15, 2008, at 6:41 PM, Andrew Dalke wrote:
>> I don't think it's enough.  I don't like environmental
>> variable tricks like that.  My tests suggest:
>>    current SVN: 0.12 seconds
>>    my patch: 0.10 seconds
>>    removing some top-level imports: 0.09 seconds
>>    my patch and removing some
>>       additional top-level imports: 0.08 seconds (this is a guess)
>>
>>
>> First, I reverted my patch, so my import times went from
>> 0.10 second to 0.12 seconds.
>
> Turns out I didn't revert everything.
>
> As of the SVN version from 10 minutes ago, "import numpy" on my
> machine takes 0.18 seconds, not 0.12 seconds.  My patch should
> cut the import time by about 30-40% more from what it is.
> On some machines.  Your milage may vary :)

I realize this is already a very complicated issue, but it's worth
pointing out that the times you measure are not necessarily the times
users care about. These numbers are once everything is loaded into
disk cache. They don't reflect, say, interactive startup time, or time
it takes in a script that uses substantial disk access (i.e. which
fills the cache with something else). I realize this is the only
available basis for comparison, but do keep in mind that improvements
of a few milliseconds here may make a much larger difference in
practice - or a much smaller difference.

Anne