[Numpy-discussion] more general LAPACK support for NumPy

[<ho...@ge...>]

Hello,

From time to time we need an additional linear algebra routine to be
avaible in Python. I find myself wrapping these functions then. As
these are FORTRAN routines, doing this for Python version on Solaris
(Sun CC/Sun F77), linux (gcc/g77) and Windows (VC++/Digital VF)
becomes nontrivial. Neither f2py nor pyfort provide Win support and I
doubt that automatic generation is usefull for many LAPACK routines,
especially those that need workspace, because usually we want LWORK to
be the optimal size.

So my Question is, are there other users wrapping LAPACK routines for
NumPy. If so, how are you doing it. For the C/FORTRAN wrapping I
somehow like the approach used for cfortran.h (see
http://www-zeus.desy.de/~burow/cfortran/index.html), but I'm afraid,
the license is not acceptable.

Is anyone aware of a C version of LAPACK besides the f2c version on
netlib. I do like the approach used in the ATLAS clapack part, but
there are only a very few LAPACK routines handeled there. If there is
greater need for additional LAPACK routines for NumPy, should we
bundle the efforts in

 (a) developing guidelines for how to write Python wrappers for LAPACK
     routines and

 (b) collecting routines provided by different users to provide a
     hopefully growing support for LAPACK in Python.

Greetings

Berthold
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