So here is a reason for keeping the linespace a vector: julia> t = linspace(0, 1, 1_000_000); julia> s = collect(t); julia> @time for n = 1:10; exp(t); end 0.209307 seconds (20 allocations: 76.295 MB, 3.42% gc time) julia> @time for n = 1:10; exp(s); end 0.054603 seconds (20 allocations: 76.295 MB, 17.66% gc time) julia> @time for n = 1:10; AppleAccelerate.exp(s); end 0.016640 seconds (40 allocations: 76.295 MB, 31.64% gc time) julia> @time for n = 1:10; AppleAccelerate.exp!(s,s); end 0.005702 seconds
Now the natural response will be to say that most of the time I won't care so much about performance, and when I do, then I can go optimise. But in truth the same can be said about keeping linspace abstract just because it saves memory. (obviously it is not faster!) I think the argument for abstract types is very strong, but (in my personal view) not at the expense of expected behaviour. Christoph
