Random numbers and dtypes

[jcmgray]

Random numbers and dtypes

[jcmgray]

Yeah this is a slightly fiddly one, my approach so far is just to focus on what happens once you have created the arrays, with the random functions included so far mostly just for testing purposes. Jax already handles random numbers pretty differently.

Having said that having a guaranteed interface for being able to call (as a first draft of things I too would find useful):

• random.normal / random.uniform
• eye / identity
• zeros
• ones

with dtype specified would be useful in and of itself, as well as for writing lots of algorithms which aren't 'creating arrays' as their overall purpose - e.g. randomized SVD etc.

Happy to accept any PRs along this direction. Some general thoughts:

• I think supporting the more concise do('random.normal', ...) style calls would be simplest to begin with, even if numpy.random.Generator is used in the background.
• Unless they are exceptionally easy to add I'm tempted to leave out stuff like binomial until someones needs them.
• I think it would make sense to default to dtype=None with the backend deciding the dtype since jax e.g. and other backends have goodish reasons for by default forcing everything to the same precision (hardware-acceleration) - in other words, dtype control probably should be opt-in with errors / loud warnings? when it can't be provided