[SciPy-dev] Which matrix library in C++ for scipy

[Fernando Perez]

On 4/26/07, Neal Becker <ndbecker2 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Fernando Perez wrote:

> > I'm curious (being a rather primitive C++ user) as to why you don't
> > like/use/prefer Blitz++ for this particular use?  Blitz arrays are
> > fairly numpy-like in much of their behavior, and one can be
> > instantiated out of a numpy array with minimal cost (copying only the
> > striding info, not the actual data).  That's what weave uses both for
> > weave.blitz and for weave.inline when type_converters=blitz is passed.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > f
>
> I did try to evaluate this some time back, and don't recall the reasoning -
> but it may be that it appears that blitz++ development has stopped, and I
> don't want to invest in something that is going to die.  The last release
> is Oct 2005.

Fair enough.  From a quick scan of their ML archives (I haven't been
subscribed for a long time) it seems that there's still /some/
activity, but Blitz has indeed suffered for a long time from lack of
solid development.  Julian Cummings --the current maintainer-- does
his best, but I have the feeling that this is a project that is mostly
love-and-spare-time for him, so it understandably gets a small time
slice allocation.

It's unfortunate, I think, given how well some aspects of numpy arrays
map to Blitz ones (esp. the no-copy part).  It looks like an
opportunity for a good C++ programmer looking for an interesting
project to adopt and re-energize.

Cheers,

f