[SciPy-dev] reimplementation of lfilter

[Sturla Molden]

David Cournapeau skrev:

>  - I would also prefer having C instead of C++ as well - in this case,
> C++ does not bring much since we have our "templating" system and you
> don't use the STL much.
>   
It was mainly for complex numbers, since MSVC does not support ISO C.


>  - In any case, please do not use exception, it is not portable.
>   
Ok, the STL containers like vector<> can throw exceptions like 
std::bad_alloc. That is why I did this.


>  - you cannot use Py_ssize_t, as it is python 2.5 >= feature - there
> is nothing wrong with npy_intp, I don't understand your comment.
>   
Yes there is, cf. PEP 353.

Using Py_intptr_t for indexing would depend on sizeof(void*) == 
sizeof(size_t), which the C standard does not mandate. It can differ on 
segment and offset architectures. Two examples are 16-bit x86 (cf. far 
and near pointers) and x86 with 36-bit PAE. It accidentally works for 
flat 32- and 64-bit address spaces. This is why Python uses Py_ssize_t 
instead of Py_intptr_t. And as it happens, npy_intp is typedef'ed to the 
latter. (This might be pedantic, but it is a formal error.)

>  - using cython is good - that could be a first patch, to replace the
> existing manual wrapping by cython. You can declare pointer without
> trouble in cython, 
No, you cannot create pointers to a variable declared object. This is 
illegal Cython:

cdef object *ptr   # would simliar to PyObject **ptr in C

So if we want to filter with dtype object, one could use Dag Sverre's 
numpy syntax and fake "cdef object *ptr" with "cdef np.ndarray[object] 
ptr", but it would not be efficient. We have to store two z-buffers and 
swap them for each filter step. The other option is to use "cdef 
PyObject**" instead of "cdef object *" in Cython, but then Cython will 
not do reference counting.


S.M.