[pygame] Whats new with Pygame, Feb 20, 2011

[Lenard Lindstrom <len-l@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

Pygame has passed revision 3000 (**) in SVN! So what has changed. I have 
spent some time adding array struct interface support to 
pygame.mixer.Sound and pygame.Surface objects. For those unfamiliar with 
the array interface, it is a protocol designed by the NumPy people that 
describes an object's internal data as an array. Unlike the new buffer 
protocol introduced in Python 3, the array protocol is stable and is 
supported by NumPy in Python's 2.4 and 2.5. 
pygame.surfarray.blit_surface has used the array interface for awhile now.

Also added is the new pixelcopy module, which also works on array 
interfaces, and moves most of the Python code for handling NumPy in 
surfarray into C. This should provide some of the speedup that has been 
promised since the release of Pygame 1.9.0. It also adds new 
functionality, such as pixels_red, pixels_green, and pixels_blue to 
surfarray. The module is still being developed, but it fully implements 
existing surfarray functionality.

So if anyone is serious about using NumPy in their projects, please give 
the latest Pygame from SVN a try. I could use the feedback.

Lenard Lindstrom


(**) bb8 hex, 101110111000 binary, 149A base 13, ... (Okay, so it is 
meaningless in an of itself.)