[Numpy-discussion] Core math library in numpy

[David Cournapeau]

Hi,

    While trying to fix some issues on windows 64 bits related to the
float format fixes, I encountered some problems (lack of some basic math
functions, in particular isnan and co for the multiarray module). We
already have the portable replacing code for those functions
(umath_funcs_c99.inc.src), which is used for the umath module. For now,
we can only reuse this implementation by direct inclusion. I think it
would be better to have a separate library with those core math routines:
     - sharing by copying means more code, more compilation time.
     - it cannot be shared outside numpy core.
For some code, we don't have a choice, but for math functions, I don't
really see an argument for not sharing: having public, portable math
functions sounds useful to me. The only requirement is that we would
need to mangle the name, I think, to avoid clash with the C math library
on the platforms who have the maths. Would there be any other drawback ?
Would people be against this ?

cheers,

David