On Mon, Aug 22, 2011 at 11:28 PM, Konrad Hinsen <[email protected]>
wrote:
> Thanks, that sounds reasonable. But is this role of tuples in the
> creation of structured arrays documented anywhere? The documentation
> on structured arrays concentrates on specifying the dtype. All I could
> find about array construction is a few examples.
Note from the peanut gallery: this is one area of the docs that could really
use a separate
.. warning::
(or at least .. note::) with the info Travis gave, because it's not obvious at
all, and deciphering the resulting error message is pretty tricky if you've
never seen it before. I know it's bitten me more than once and I always
scratch my head for a few minutes...
It just occurred to me that it would be very cool to have in the docs a few
standalone HowTo documents on selected topics. Over the years I've found some
of the Python howtos extremely useful, and I was very happy when I saw they
started including them in the bundled docs. They complement very nicely the
reference/api and explain certain key topics in a more tutorial fashion.
Off the top of my head, here are a few ideas for enterprising souls to make a
very useful contribution with a howto on each of these topics:
- dtype/structured arrays and record arrays
- fancy indexing, broadcasting, lib.index_tricks (if Anne could find the time
to write this one, we'd be eternally grateful)
- ctypes and cython for C interfacing and optimization
- missing data/masked arrays (including the new goodies).
These could be written by a small team, perhaps pairing an experienced numpy
contributor with a new member who can provide the balance of perspective of a
newcomer (very important in tutorial documentation) and simultaneously gain
in-depth experience with important topics.
OK, back to the comfort of my chair up here in the gallery...
Cheers,
f
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