[SciPy-dev] Progress with linalg2

[eric]

>
> Hi Eric,
>
> On Sun, 3 Mar 2002, eric wrote:
>
> > 1.  My atlas is missing some routines that you have in generic_clapack.pyf.
> >     Specifically:
> >
> >         clapack_xgetri
> >         clapack_xpotri
> >         clapack_xlauum
> >         clapack_xtrtri
> >
> >     where x stands for the various types.  Are these in your ATLAS?  I have
a
> >     fairly recent version, but perhaps I need to upgrade?
>
> Yes, my ATLAS have them. I am using ATLAS-3.3.13 and I didn't realize that
> it may contain functions not included in the stable ATLAS. Sorry about
> that.
>
> > 2.  I get segfaults when trying to run the tests.  It looks like they happen
> >     for both C and Fortran (I commented out contiguous cases to test
Fortran).
> >     Do you think this is a windows specific issue?  I am using the latest
> >     f2py CVS.
>
> Try using only flapack. Because the segfaults may be caused by the
> 1. issue above. To be sure that solve() will not use clapack functions,
> you need to remove clapack.so file, commenting some test cases out may not
> be enough.

I'll do more research here and report back.

>
> > 3.  I like your _measure tests.  I've long been wishing we had some set of
> >     benchmarks that we could test with something like:
> >
> >        >>> import scipy
> >        >>> scipy.benchmark()
> >
> >     This is a nice step in that direction.
>
> So, shall we use benchmark_ or bench_ (instead of measure_) prefix for the
> names of corresponding member functions in test_*.py?

I like "bench_".  short, sweet, and obvious (well hopefully).  Also, I guess we
should start adding a "bench_suite" function to the test modules also.  At some
point, we need to sub-class the unit test class to provide a few timing routines
so that:

    def bench_solve(self):
        <some setup code>
        self.start_timer()
        <run benchmark>
        self.stop_timer()

The test case should keep up with the timing information internally.  A more
sophisticated interface might be necessary, but this is a start.

see ya,
eric