[SciPy-dev] Numpy/Cython Google Summer of Code project idea

[Travis E. Oliphant]

John Ollinger wrote:
> Fernando,
>
> When I wrap a C package I spend 95% of my time modifying the package 
> to run as a library and 5% of the time hand-wrapping it for python.  I 
> find that hand-wrapping makes me more aware of the interface than 
> using swig, so I can recode portions of the library to make the 
> overall package work better.  A quick look at the cyrex documentation 
> makes me wonder if it is primarily  written for those who haven't 
> written much C-code..  Is this an accurate impression?  
Yes, I think this is accurate.   The big win, however with using cython 
is maintainability.   Many more people can improve the code.   
Complicated things can be a bit of a pain to do in Cython yet, and there 
is a desperate need for multi-dimensional syntax, but I've been 
impressed with how many people have contributed to the Sage project and 
wonder if some of that is the fact that much of it is written in 
Cython.   (There are other things the SciPy project can learn from the 
Sage project, as well).

Best regards,

-Travis Oliphant