Thanks for the reply. I thought one reason for amax was that from numpy import * would not not import max but only amax. How about sum ? Does "from numpy import *" overwrite the builtin sum ? not to mention the "symmetry" / consistency argument for having "asum" ?
More comments ?? --Sebastian Haase On Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 6:04 PM, Robert Kern <robert.k...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 10:56, Sebastian Haase <seb.ha...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Hi, >> >> Is this a dumb question ? >> Why is there no np.asum() equivalent to np.sum() - like amax() to max() ? > > Back when Numeric was being written, max() and min() existed as > builtins, but sum() did not. In order to support "from Numeric import > *", the amax() aliases were added. sum() was added to the builtins > later, but no one went back to add an asum() alias. > >> Another question: what does it mean that amax() (and max()) is a >> "function" while maximum() is a ufunc !? >> >>>>> N.max >> <function amax at 0x14071b8> >>>>> N.maximum >> <ufunc 'maximum'> >>>>> N.amax >> <function amax at 0x14071b8> >> >> Is there a performance difference connected to this ? > > No. maximum(x,y) is a binary ufunc that takes two arrays and returns > an array with the element-wise maximum from between the two inputs. > amax(x) is an unary function that returns the maximum value in the > array. amax(x) is a convenience for maximum.reduce(x.flat). > > -- > Robert Kern > > "I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless > enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as > though it had an underlying truth." > -- Umberto Eco > _______________________________________________ > NumPy-Discussion mailing list > NumPy-Discussion@scipy.org > http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion > _______________________________________________ NumPy-Discussion mailing list NumPy-Discussion@scipy.org http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion
