[Numpy-discussion] Splitting MaskedArray into a separate package

[Matthew Brett]

Hi,

On Wed, May 23, 2018 at 10:42 PM, Stefan van der Walt
<stefanv at berkeley.edu> wrote:
> On May 23, 2018 14:28:05 Matthew Brett <matthew.brett at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Can I ask what the plans are for supporting missing values, inside or
>> outside numpy?  Is there are successor to MaskedArray - and is this
>> part of the succession plan?
>
>
> I am not aware of any concrete plans, maybe others can chime in?
>
> It's a bit strange, the words that are used in this thread: "succession",
> "purification", "elimination", and "purge". I don't have my knife out for
> MaskedArrays; I merged a lot of Pierre's work myself. I simply suspect there
> may be a better and more supporting home/project configuration for it,
> perhaps still under the NumPy umbrella.

The NEP notes that MaskedArray imposes a significant maintenance
burden, as a motivation for removing it.  I'm sure you'd predict that
the Numpy developers are likely to spend less time on it, if it moves
to its own package.  I guess the hope would be that others would take
over, but is that likely?  What if they don't?

Would it be reasonable to develop an alternative plan for missing
arrays in concert with this NEP, maybe along the lines that Allan
mentioned, above?

Cheers,

Matthew