GitLab

When attempting to get a raw array pointer we return nullptr if given a
nullptr, which triggers an error_already_set(), but we haven't set an
exception message, which results in "Unknown internal error".

Callers that want explicit allowing of a nullptr here already handle it
(by clearing the exception after the call).

The extends the previous unchecked support with the ability to
determine the dimensions at runtime.  This incurs a small performance
hit when used (versus the compile-time fixed alternative), but is still considerably
faster than the full checks on every call that happen with
`.at()`/`.mutable_at()`.

This adds bounds-unchecked access to arrays through a `a.unchecked<Type,
Dimensions>()` method.  (For `array_t<T>`, the `Type` template parameter
is omitted).  The mutable version (which requires the array have the
`writeable` flag) is available as `a.mutable_unchecked<...>()`.

Specifying the Dimensions as a template parameter allows storage of an
std::array; having the strides and sizes stored that way (as opposed to
storing a copy of the array's strides/shape pointers) allows the
compiler to make significant optimizations of the shape() method that it
can't make with a pointer; testing with nested loops of the form:

    for (size_t i0 = 0; i0 < r.shape(0); i0++)
        for (size_t i1 = 0; i1 < r.shape(1); i1++)
            ...
                r(i0, i1, ...) += 1;

over a 10 million element array gives around a 25% speedup (versus using
a pointer) for the 1D case, 33% for 2D, and runs more than twice as fast
with a 5D array.

* Add value_type member alias to py::array_t (resolve #632)

* Use numpy scalar name in py::array_t function signatures (e.g. float32/64 instead of just float)

This makes array_t respect overload resolution and noconvert by failing
to load when `convert = false` if the src isn't already an array of the
correct type.

* Make string conversion stricter

The string conversion logic added in PR #624 for all std::basic_strings
was derived from the old std::wstring logic, but that was underused and
turns out to have had a bug in accepting almost anything convertible to
unicode, while the previous std::string logic was much stricter.  This
restores the previous std::string logic by only allowing actual unicode
or string types.

Fixes #685.

* Added missing 'requires numpy' decorator

(I forgot that the change to a global decorator here is in the
not-yet-merged Eigen PR)

* `array_t(const object &)` now throws on error
* `array_t::ensure()` is intended for casters —- old constructor is
  deprecated
* `array` and `array_t` get default constructors (empty array)
* `array` gets a converting constructor
* `py::isinstance<array_T<T>>()` checks the type (but not flags)

There is only one special thing which must remain: `array_t` gets
its own `type_caster` specialization which uses `ensure` instead
of a simple check.

* Also added unsafe version without checks

The current integer caster was unnecessarily strict and rejected
various kinds of NumPy integer types when calling C++ functions
expecting normal integers. This relaxes the current behavior.

This patch adds an extra base handle parameter to most ``py::array`` and
``py::array_t<>`` constructors. If specified along with a pointer to
data, the base object will be registered within NumPy, which increases
the base's reference count. This feature is useful to create shallow
copies of C++ or Python arrays while ensuring that the owners of the
underlying can't be garbage collected while referenced by NumPy.

The commit also adds a simple test function involving a ``wrap()``
function that creates shallow copies of various N-D arrays.

- This actually works with no changes, I just wasn't 100% convinced and
  decided to write a test to see if it's true.