[Numpy-discussion] RFC: Detecting array changes (NumPy 2.0?)

[Charles R Harris]

On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 1:06 PM, Dag Sverre Seljebotn <
d.s.seljebotn at astro.uio.no> wrote:

>  On Fri, 11 Mar 2011 19:37:42 +0000 (UTC), Pauli Virtanen <pav at iki.fi>
>  wrote:
> > On Fri, 11 Mar 2011 11:47:58 -0700, Charles R Harris wrote:
> > [clip]
> >> What about views? Wouldn't it be easier to write another object
> >> wrapping
> >> an ndarray?
> >
> > I think the buffer interfaces and all other various ways Numpy
> > provides
> > exports for arrays make keeping tabs on modification impossible to do
> > completely reliably.
>
>  Not to mention all the pain of making sure the arrays are wrapped and
>  stay wrapped in the first place. In particular in combination with other
>  array wrappers.
>
>  I wasn't saying this is absolutely needed, just that it'd be a really
>  convenient feature helpful for caching. Sometimes, introducing fast
>  caching this way can remove a lot of logic from the code. Introducing a
>  Python-space visible wrapper object kind of defeats the purpose for me.
>
>
Well, starting with a wrapped object would allow you to experiment and
discover what it is you really need. A smallish specialized object is
probably a better starting point for development than a big solution.
Operating systems do this sort of thing with the VM, but they have hardware
assistance down at the lowest level and rather extensive structures to track
status. Furthermore, the memory is organized into blocks and that makes it a
lot easier to monitor than strided memory. In fact, I think you might want
to set up your own memory subsystem and have the arrays sit on top of that.

Chuck
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