On 17.11.2007, at 03:50, Rahul Garg wrote: > It would be awesome if you guys could respond to some of the following > questions : > a) Can you guys tell me briefly about the kind of problems you are > tackling with numpy and scipy?
For me, NumPy is an important building block in a set of computational Python libraries that form the basis of my daily work in molecular simulations. The main building block is my Molecular Modelling Toolkit (http://dirac.cnrs-orleans.fr/MMTK/), but NumPy provides the basic data structure (arrays) for much of what MMTK does, and even more so for interfacing with the rest of the world. I don't use SciPy at all. > b) Have you ever felt that numpy/scipy was slow and had to switch to > C/C++/Fortran? There is some C code (and an increasing amount of Pyrex code) in my Python environment, and it is essential for good performance. However, in terms of code quantity, it is negligible. > c) Do you use any form of parallel processing? Multicores? SMPs? > Clusters? If yes how did u utilize them? All of them. I use threading (multicores and SMPs) in MMTK, and coarse-grained parallelization as implemented in ScientificPython for analyzing large data sets. ScientificPython has two parallel computing modules. The easiest to use implements a master-slave model in which a master process delegates computational tasks to an arbitrary (and possibly varying) number of slave processes: http://dirac.cnrs-orleans.fr/hg/ScientificPython/main/file/ 73cc270217fc/Examples/master_slave_demo.py The other parallelization package is based on the BSP model of parallel computing: http://dirac.cnrs-orleans.fr/hg/ScientificPython/main/file/ 73cc270217fc/Examples/BSP/ http://dirac.cnrs-orleans.fr/ScientificPython/ScientificPythonManual/ It probably has a steeper learning curve, but it is suitable for more complex parallel programs because it permits the construction of parallel libraries. Konrad. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Konrad Hinsen Centre de Biophysique Moléculaire, CNRS Orléans Synchrotron Soleil - Division Expériences Saint Aubin - BP 48 91192 Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France Tel. +33-1 69 35 97 15 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Numpy-discussion mailing list Numpy-discussion@scipy.org http://projects.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion
