Weave tutorial obsolete ? (Trac #1368)

[scipy-gitbot]

Original ticket http://projects.scipy.org/scipy/ticket/1368 on 2011-01-20 by trac user bscipy, assigned to unknown.

==Is the tutorial obsolete...==

This file : http://projects.scipy.org/scipy/browser/trunk/scipy/weave/doc/tutorial.txt is in the setup directory of Weave for Scipy 0.8.0 (also in Scipy 0.7.0, I checked) but the code example (see below) don't work (ImportError: cannot import name blitz_type_factories; the same with scalar_spec).

(l. 641)from weave.blitz_tools import blitz_type_factories
        from weave import scalar_spec
        from weave import inline
        def _cast_copy_transpose(type,a_2d):
            assert(len(shape(a_2d)) == 2)
            new_array = zeros(shape(a_2d),type)
            NumPy_type = scalar_spec.NumPy_to_blitz_type_mapping[type]
            code = \
            """
            for(int i = 0;i < _Na_2d[0]; i++)
                for(int j = 0;  j < _Na_2d[1]; j++)
                    new_array(i,j) = (%s) a_2d(j,i);
            """ % NumPy_type
            inline(code,['new_array','a_2d'],
                   type_factories = blitz_type_factories,compiler='gcc')
            return new_array

Nowhere in Weave's source code exist strings _ 'scalar_spec' _ and _ 'blitz_type_factories',_ so the corrections are:

With inline(l.654), type_factories has to be corrected with type_converters, shape(l.646) is in fact a_2d.shape and to replace "blitz_type_factories", the blitz list, imported from scipy.weave.converters seems to work.

>>> from scipy.weave.converters import blitz
>>> blitz
[(file:: name: no_name), (file:: name: no_name), (file:: name: no_name), (file:: name: no_name), (file:: name: no_name), (file:: name: no_name), (file:: name: no_name), (file:: name: no_name), (file:: name: no_name), (file:: name: no_name), (file:: name: no_name), (file:: name: no_name), (file:: name: no_name), (file:: name: no_name), (file:: name: no_name), (file:: name: no_name)]

(strange list, by the way).

I don't know how to correct the missing scalar_spec import, but that brings a question: is the tutorial obsolete and where can I find an up-to-date version, or is Weave (0.8.0) obsolete (and that code is supposed to work)?

==...or is Weave obsolete?==

In the weave directory there are 8 factories:

- base_spec
- blitz_spec
- cpp_namespace_spec
- c_spec
- numpy_scalar_spec
- standard_array_spec
- swig2_spec
- vtk_spec

Python's help for those modules lacks explanations about NumPy_to_blitz_type_mapping, but for more informations, this help links to the Module Docs, on the official Python website :

<<
Help on module scipy.weave.numpy_scalar_spec in scipy.weave:

NAME
   scipy.weave.numpy_scalar_spec

FILE
   /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/scipy/weave/numpy_scalar_spec.py

MODULE DOCS
   http://docs.python.org/library/scipy.weave.numpy_scalar_spec
...>>

This link is broken. That seems strange: why would Python delete this doc?

By the way, Scipy's and Weave's link are broken also :
http://docs.python.org/library/scipy
http://docs.python.org/library/scipy.weave
and I've found no help about numpy_scalar_spec on Scipy.org or on this Wiki.

To end with link problems, SVN link is broken also :

svn co http://svn.scipy.org/svn/scipy/trunk/Lib/weave weave -> URL doesn't exist

==Bonus question==

I'm trying to use scipy.weave.inline() (or scipy.weave.inline_tools.inline(), don't know if there is a difference) to compute on a masked array (numpy.ma.MaskedArray). Can you tell me which "factory" knows how to convert my variable to C?

[person142]

Closing since weave is no longer a part of SciPy. This issue is now tracked at scipy/weave#7.