[Numpy-discussion] Memory leak?

[Nathaniel Smith]

On Fri, Jan 31, 2014 at 4:29 PM, Benjamin Root <ben.root at ou.edu> wrote:
> Just to chime in here about the SciPy Superpack... this distribution tracks
> the master branch of many projects, and then puts out releases, on the
> assumption that master contains pristine code, I guess. I have gone down
> strange rabbit holes thinking that a particular bug was fixed already and
> the user telling me a version number that would confirm that, only to
> discover that the superpack actually packaged matplotlib about a month prior
> to releasing a version.
>
> I will not comment on how good or bad of an idea it is for the Superpack to
> do that, but I just wanted to make other developers aware of this to keep
> them from falling down the same rabbit hole.

Wow, that is good to know. Esp. since the web page:
  http://fonnesbeck.github.io/ScipySuperpack/
simply advertises that it gives you things like numpy 1.9 and scipy
0.14, which don't exist. (With some note about dev versions buried in
prose a few sentences later.)

Empirically, development versions of numpy have always contained bugs,
regressions, and compatibility breaks that were fixed in the released
version; and we make absolutely no guarantees about compatibility
between dev versions and any release versions. And it sort of has to
be that way for us to be able to make progress. But if too many people
start using dev versions for daily use, then we and downstream
dependencies will have to start adding compatibility hacks and stuff
to support those dev versions. Which would be a nightmare for
developers and users both.

Recommending this build for daily use by non-developers strikes me as
dangerous for both users and the wider ecosystem.

-n