[Numpy-discussion] feedback request: proposal to add masks to the core ndarray

[Christopher Barker]

Nathaniel Smith wrote:
> IME
> it's important for the default behavior to be to fail loudly when
> things are wonky, not to silently patch them up, possibly
> incorrectly!)

+1 for default behavior to fail, raise errors, or return "unknown 
values" is these situations.

Though that behavior should be over-ridable with a flag or addition 
functions (like nan-sum)

Robert Kern wrote:
> How your proposal
> improves on the status quo, i.e. numpy.ma. 

I've thought for years that masked arrays should be better integrated 
with numpy -- it seems there is a lot of code duplication and upkeep 
required to keep masked arrays working as much like regular arrays as 
possible. Particularly having third-party code work with them.

And I'm not sure I can explain why, but I find myself hardly ever using 
masked arrays -- it just feels like added complication to use them -- I 
tend to work with floats and use NaN instead, even though it's often not 
as good an option.

Gael Varoquaux wrote:
> Right now, the numpy array can be seen as an extension of the C array,
> basically a pointer, a data type, and a shape (and strides). This enables
> easy sharing with libraries that have not been written with numpy in
> mind.

Isn't that what the PEP 3118 extended buffer protocol is supposed to be for?

Anyway, good stuff!

-Chris






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