[Matrix-SIG] Numeric semantics question....

[Neel Krishnaswami]

Hi,

I wanted to confirm that if I assign a subsequence of an array object, the
entire array is kept in memory. That is, if I wrote some code like this:

-*-*-*-

import Numeric

def memory_waster():
    x = Numeric.zeros((1000000,1), Numeric.Float)
    return x[1]

def hose_system(n):
    a = []
    for i in range(n):
        a.append( memory_waster() )
    return a

x = hose_system(500)

-*-*-*-

Numeric would try to allocate memory for 500 million floats, right? 

Does making the following change correctly get around the problem?

def memory_waster():
    x = Numeric.zeros((1000000,1), Numeric.Float)
    return copy.copy(x[1])


I've tried it and it seems to work, but I'd appreciate advice about
the subtleties from anyone more experienced than I.



--
Neel Krishnaswami
neelk@cswv.com