[SciPy-User] [cython-users] Re: scipy cblas return value

[Robert Kern]

On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 4:22 PM, Sturla Molden <sturla at molden.no> wrote:
>
> On Sep 24, 2013, at 11:55 PM, Radim Řehůřek <me at radimrehurek.com> wrote:
>
>> But I don't know what BLAS/compiler the users will be using.
>
> Then you're screwed.
>
>> That was the whole point of trying to go through SciPy -- I thought
there was a translation/interface that would allow me to call the standard
routines in a stable way, no matter what idiosyncratic BLAS hid
underneath... I figured SciPy itself must be doing that already.
>
> BLAS has a standard Fortran API. The exact ABI is compiler dependent.
That is all you get to know. (Note the difference between API and ABI.)

BLAS also has a standard C API implemented by most, if not all, reasonable
implementations. No, I will go so far as to say that any modern
implementation that excludes the CBLAS API is unreasonable and can be
ignored.

  http://www.netlib.org/blas/blast-forum/cinterface.pdf

For example, all of these implement the CBLAS interface:

> Otherwise I strongly recommend to use a BLAS library you can control. The
common ones:
>
> - Intel MKL
> - Apple Accelerate Framework
> - OpenBLAS (or GotoBLAS2)
> - AMD's ACML
> - ATLAS

You don't have to pick just one. Just require the CBLAS interface, then you
can let downstream users freely pick and choose among the many fine
implementations of the CBLAS interface.

--
Robert Kern
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