Editing NumPy (section)

== History ==
===matrix-sig===
The Python programming language was not originally designed for numerical computing, but attracted the attention of the scientific and engineering community early on. In 1995 the [[special interest group]] (SIG) ''matrix-sig'' was founded with the aim of defining an [[Array data type|array]] computing package; among its members was Python designer and maintainer [[Guido van Rossum]], who extended [[Python syntax and semantics|Python's syntax]] (in particular the indexing syntax<ref>{{Cite web|title=Indexing — NumPy v1.20 Manual|url=https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/arrays.indexing.html|access-date=2021-04-06|website=numpy.org}}</ref>) to make [[array programming|array computing]] easier.<ref name="millman"/>

===Numeric===
An implementation of a matrix package was completed by Jim Fulton, then generalized{{explain|From what to what?|date=April 2020}} by Jim Hugunin and called ''Numeric''<ref name="millman">{{cite journal
  |first1=K. Jarrod
  |last1=Millman
  |first2=Michael
  |last2=Aivazis
  |title=Python for Scientists and Engineers
  |journal=Computing in Science and Engineering
  |volume=13
  |number=2
  |pages=9–12
  |year=2011
  |doi=10.1109/MCSE.2011.36
 |bibcode=2011CSE....13b...9M
 |url=http://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/cs/2011/02/mcs2011020009.html
  |access-date=2014-07-07
  |archive-date=2019-02-19
  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190219031439/https://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/cs/2011/02/mcs2011020009.html
  |url-status=dead
  }}</ref> (also variously known as the "Numerical Python extensions" or "NumPy"), with influences from the [[APL (programming language)|APL]] family of languages, Basis, [[MATLAB]], [[FORTRAN]], [[S (programming language)|S]] and [[S-PLUS|S+]], and others.<ref name="cise2">{{cite journal |author=Travis Oliphant |title=Python for Scientific Computing |journal=Computing in Science and Engineering |year=2007 |url=http://www.vision.ime.usp.br/~thsant/pool/oliphant-python_scientific.pdf |access-date=2013-10-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014035918/http://www.vision.ime.usp.br/~thsant/pool/oliphant-python_scientific.pdf |archive-date=2013-10-14 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="numerical">{{cite web |author1=David Ascher |author2=Paul F. Dubois |author3=Konrad Hinsen |author4=Jim Hugunin |author5=Travis Oliphant |title=Numerical Python |url=http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~hv/articles/Numerical/numpy.pdf |year=1999}}</ref>
Hugunin, a graduate student at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT),<ref name="numerical"/>{{rp|10}} joined the [[Corporation for National Research Initiatives]] (CNRI) in 1997 to work on [[Jython|JPython]],<ref name="millman"/> leaving Paul Dubois of [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] (LLNL) to take over as maintainer.<ref name="numerical"/>{{rp|10}} Other early contributors include David Ascher, Konrad Hinsen and [[Travis Oliphant]].<ref name="numerical"/>{{rp|10}}

===Numarray===
A new package called ''Numarray'' was written as a more flexible replacement for Numeric.<ref name="cise"/><!--for sure not "cise2"? --> Like Numeric, it too is now deprecated.<ref>{{cite web| title = Numarray Homepage | url = http://www.stsci.edu/resources/software_hardware/numarray | access-date = 2006-06-24}}</ref><ref name="NumPyBook">{{cite book
  | title = Guide to NumPy
  | author = Travis E. Oliphant
  | date = 7 December 2006
  | url = https://archive.org/details/NumPyBook
  | access-date = 2 February 2017
}}</ref> Numarray had faster operations for large arrays, but was slower than Numeric on small ones,<ref>{{cite web| title = <nowiki>[Numpy-discussion]</nowiki> Status of Numeric
  | author = Travis Oliphant and other SciPy developers
  | url = https://mail.scipy.org/pipermail/numpy-discussion/2004-January/002645.html
  | access-date = 2 February 2017
}}</ref> so for a time both packages were used in parallel for different use cases. The last version of Numeric (v24.2) was released on 11 November 2005, while the last version of numarray (v1.5.2) was released on 24 August 2006.<ref>{{cite web| title = NumPy Sourceforge Files | url = http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=1369 | access-date = 2008-03-24}}</ref>

There was a desire to get Numeric into the Python standard library, but Guido van Rossum decided that the code was not maintainable in its state then.{{when|date=October 2013}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://scipy.github.io/old-wiki/pages/History_of_SciPy.html|title=History_of_SciPy - SciPy wiki dump|website=scipy.github.io}}</ref>

===NumPy===
In early 2005, NumPy developer Travis Oliphant wanted to unify the community around a single array package and ported Numarray's features to Numeric, releasing the result as NumPy 1.0 in 2006.<ref name="cise"/><!--for sure not "cise2"? --> This new project was part of [[SciPy]]. To avoid installing the large SciPy package just to get an array object, this new package was separated and called NumPy. Support for Python 3 was added in 2011 with NumPy version 1.5.0.<ref>{{cite web| title = NumPy 1.5.0 Release Notes | url = http://sourceforge.net/projects/numpy/files//NumPy/1.5.0/NOTES.txt/view | access-date = 2011-04-29 }}</ref>

In 2011, [[PyPy]] started development on an implementation of the NumPy API for PyPy.<ref>{{cite web| title=PyPy Status Blog: NumPy funding and status update | url = http://morepypy.blogspot.com/2011/10/numpy-funding-and-status-update.html | access-date = 2011-12-22 }}</ref> As of 2023, it is not yet fully compatible with NumPy.<ref>{{cite web| title=NumPyPy Status | url = http://buildbot.pypy.org/numpy-status/latest.html | access-date = 2023-12-19 }}</ref>