[Numpy-discussion] Switch to using ATLAS for OSX binary wheels

[Sturla Molden]

Matthew Brett <matthew.brett at gmail.com> wrote:

> Meanwhile Sturla kindly worked up a patch to numpy to work round the
> Accelerate segfault [1].  I haven't tested that, but given I'd already
> built the wheels, I prefer the ATLAS builds because they work with
> multiprocessing.

It is an ugly hack. If it is used it would be better to keep it in a
separate branch rather than in NumPy master.

I am not able to post a PR because my fork of NumPy is unavailable on
GitHub.

> I propose uploading these wheels as the default for numpy and scipy.
> Does anyone have any objection or comments before I go ahead and do
> that?

ATLAS should be fine. Performance will not be anything like the
alternatives (Accelerate and OpenBLAS), but correctness is more important.
I am not sure why ATLAS is preferred over OpenBLAS, though, but I don't
really care.

Perhaps we could ask Intel permission to use MKL in the binary wheels? The
Accelerate vs. multiptocessing issue will never be fixed for Python 2.7 and
poissibly Python 3.3 (it is fixed in Python 3.4). The error is in
multiprocessing, so Apple will not patch Accelerate. New features will not
be added to Python 2.7 standard lib, so there is no chance of getting the
required fix backported there either. Stalemate.

Sturla