[Python-Dev] PEP: Adding data-type objects to Python

[Nick Coghlan]

Martin v. Löwis wrote:
> Travis E. Oliphant schrieb:
>>     The datatype is an object that specifies how a certain block of
>>     memory should be interpreted as a basic data-type. 
>>
>>       >>> datatype(float)
>>       datatype('float64')
> 
> I can't speak on the specific merits of this proposal, or whether this
> kind of functionality is desirable. However, I'm -1 on the addition of
> a builtin for this functionality (the PEP doesn't actually say that
> there is another builtin, but the examples suggest so). Instead, putting
> it into the sys, array, struct, or ctypes modules might be more
> appropriate, as might be the introduction of another module.

I'd say the answer to where we put it will be dependent on what happens to the 
idea of adding a NumArray style fixed dimension array type to the standard 
library. If that gets exposed through the array module as array.dimarray, then 
it would make sense to expose the associated data layout descriptors as 
array.datatype.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
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