Commit 5c3fb00a authored by Robert Bradshaw's avatar Robert Bradshaw

Add note about type inference.

parent 9d2b6d78
......@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ where value overflows on conversion to a C type will raise a Python
when doing arithmetic.) The generated C code will handle the
platform dependent sizes of C types correctly and safely in this case.
Types are declared via the cdef keyword.
Types are declared via the cdef keyword.
Typing Variables
......@@ -114,12 +114,12 @@ Because static typing is often the key to large speed gains, beginners
often have a tendency to type everything in sight. This cuts down on both
readability and flexibility, and can even slow things down (e.g. by adding
unnecessary type checks, conversions, or slow buffer unpacking).
On the other hand, it is easy to kill
performance by forgetting to type a critical loop variable. Two essential
tools to help with this task are profiling and annotation.
Profiling should be the first step of any optimization effort, and can
On the other hand, it is easy to kill
performance by forgetting to type a critical loop variable. Two essential
tools to help with this task are profiling and annotation.
Profiling should be the first step of any optimization effort, and can
tell you where you are spending your time. Cython's annotation can then
tell you why your code is taking time.
tell you why your code is taking time.
Using the ``-a`` switch to the ``cython`` command line program (or
following a link from the Sage notebook) results in an HTML report
......@@ -136,3 +136,13 @@ and for determining when to :ref:`release the GIL <nogil>`:
in general, a ``nogil`` block may contain only "white" code.
.. figure:: htmlreport.png
Note that Cython deduces the type of local variables based on their assignments,
which can also cut down on the need to explicitly specify types everywhere.
For example, declaring ``dx`` to be of type double above is unnecessary,
as is declaring the type of ``s`` in the last version (where the return type
of ``f`` is known to be a C double.) A notable exception, however, is
*integer types used in arithmetic expressions*, as Cython is unable to ensure
that an overflow would not occur (and so falls back to ``object`` in case
Python's bignums are needed). To allow inference of C integer types, set the
``infer_types`` :ref:`directive <compiler-directives>` to ``True``.
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