Greg Willden wrote: > On 10/11/06, *Bill Baxter* <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote: > > On 10/12/06, Greg Willden <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote: > > Speed should not take precedence over correctness. > > Unless your goal is speed. Then speed should take precedence over > correctness. > > > Huh? > Person 1: "Hey you should use function X." > Person 2: "No, it doesn't give me the correct answer." > Person 1: "Who cares? It's fast!" > > What kind of logic is that? > > I'm having serious doubts about my conversion to Numpy.
It's more like Person 1: Function x is designed to be fast, have predictable memory usage and so be suitable for a wide variety of applications. Alternatively there is function y which is slower but handles a larger numerical domain. y Might be more sutiable for your needs; you should use it. Person 2: Numpy is broken! Function x should just do what I want! Really, given that both options are available, I don't see a big issue here. Claims that returning j for sqrt(-1) is "more correct" seem highly dubious as a) NumPy is a numerical library, not an algebraic one, hence the fact that it behaves in a type-dependent way is not so surprising, and b) no one complains that functions like sqrt return only positive floats, despite the fact that, mathematically, this function is multivalued. -- "Eternity's a terrible thought. I mean, where's it all going to end?" -- Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job easier Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 _______________________________________________ Numpy-discussion mailing list Numpy-discussion@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/numpy-discussion
