[Numpy-discussion] [SciPy-user] Managing Python with NumPy and many external libraries on multiple Windows machines

[Stéfan van der Walt]

2009/4/28 Charles R Harris <charlesr.harris at gmail.com>:
> 2009/4/28 Stéfan van der Walt <stefan at sun.ac.za>
>> We can already do this: simply choose a convention for NPY_VERSION and
>> NPY_FEATURE_VERSION so that they are related.
>
> NPY_VERSION has been 0x01000009 since 1.0. NPY_FEATURE_VERSION was added for
> 1.2, but is useless since it can't be obtained through the API. I suggest we
> keep only NPY_VERSION but split it into two parts, the upper 16 bits for ABI
> changes that require extensions to be recompiled, and the lower 16 bits for
> API changes that are backward compatible, so that the next release should
> have version 0x0100000A. What to do with the current release is another
> question. If we change the version for a bugfix release it won't be
> compatible with 1.3.0. Hmm...

The current system does exactly this. The ABI compatibility is tracked
in NPY_VERSION and the C API version is tracked in
NPY_FEATURE_VERSION.   NPY_VERSION is only visible where it is needed
-- during compilation of extensions.

Regards
Stéfan