[Numpy-discussion] Re: [SciPy-user] Current thoughts on future directions

[Michiel Jan Laurens de Hoon]

Pearu Peterson wrote:
>> Travis Oliphant wrote:
>>
>>> 1) There will be a scipy_core  package which will be essentially what 
>>> Numeric has always been (plus a few easy to install extras already in 
>>> current scipy_core).
...
>>> linalg (a lite version -- no fortran or ATLAS dependency)
> 
> Again, what would be the underlying linear algebra library here?
> Numeric uses f2c version of lite lapack library. Shall we do the same 
> but wrapping the c codes with f2py rather than by hand? f2c might be 
> useful also in other cases to reduce fortran dependency, but only when 
> it is critical to ease the scipy_core installation.
> 
If I understand Travis correctly, the idea is to use Numeric as the 
basis for scipy_core, allowing current Numerical Python users to switch 
to scipy_core with a minimum of trouble. So why not use Numeric's lite 
lapack library directly? What is the advantage of repeating the c code 
wrapping (by f2py or by hand)?

--Michiel.