Make Numpy optional

[boydgreenfield]

It would be good to have pmgen.py not require Numpy for modules not making use of numeric arrays, as Numpy is a fairly heavyweight dependency.

[boydgreenfield]

@jboy just opening this (and maybe a few other issues) as I play around with pymod. Obviously this is your design choice, but hope they're at least helpful suggestions.

[jboy]

Hi @boydgreenfield , sure, no worries. I understand where you're coming from. In fact, it's been distantly on my list of Things To Do to make Numpy optional.

Obviously integration with Numpy is core to our use of Pymod, and was a primary motivator for our creation of Pymod. (In fact, the ease & seamlessness of integration with Numpy was for me a metric of how well I was "doing it right" when I was designing Pymod.) But of course, as you say, it is a heavyweight dependency -- especially if you need to compile it from source, with all the BLAS/LAPACK/Atlas support, etc. And another of my design-quality metrics was how easily new types could be added to Pymod, without making everything depend upon them.

So yes, this is something that will happen. But first I want to make it easier to add new types (which will also be of use to your team, I think) before I remove Numpy. :)