vecta-math 0.0.1

A from-scratch computational maths library (following Mathematics for Machine Learning) with a C++ core and Python bindings

Vecta

A computational maths library for ML, built from scratch in C++ with Python bindings, structured chapter-by-chapter after Mathematics for Machine Learning (Deisenroth, Faisal, Ong).

Stack

• C++17 core (no external maths dependencies — everything implemented from scratch)
• pybind11 for Python bindings
• scikit-build-core + CMake for packaging
• uv for the Python venv and all package installs (no pip commands)
• Catch2 for C++ unit tests
• pytest for Python-level tests

Layout

Each chapter gets matching folders across headers, sources, bindings, the Python package, and both test suites:

include/vecta/<chapter>/      C++ headers
src/<chapter>/                C++ implementation
bindings/<chapter>_bindings.cpp   pybind11 binding code for that chapter
python/vecta/<chapter>/       Python package wrapper
tests/cpp/<chapter>/          Catch2 tests
tests/python/<chapter>/       pytest tests

Chapters (folder name → book chapter):

Folder	Book chapter	Status
linear_algebra	Ch 2 — Linear Algebra	Vector implemented
analytic_geometry	Ch 3 — Analytic Geometry	stub
matrix_decompositions	Ch 4 — Matrix Decompositions	stub
vector_calculus	Ch 5 — Vector Calculus	stub
probability	Ch 6 — Probability and Distributions	stub
optimization	Ch 7 — Continuous Optimization	stub
linear_regression	Ch 9 — Linear Regression	stub
dimensionality_reduction	Ch 10 — Dimensionality Reduction (PCA)	stub
density_estimation	Ch 11 — Density Estimation (GMM)	stub
classification	Ch 12 — Classification (SVM)	stub

"stub" means: it compiles, links, imports from Python, and has a smoke test — so the whole pipeline stays green as you go. Replace placeholder() with real content in the header/source/bindings/tests for a chapter as you study it.

examples/ is free scratch space for worked examples from the book.

Adding real content to a stub chapter

1. Write the real implementation in include/vecta/<chapter>/<chapter>.hpp (and .cpp if needed).
2. Expose it to Python in bindings/<chapter>_bindings.cpp.
3. Delete the placeholder() smoke tests in tests/cpp/<chapter>/ and tests/python/<chapter>/, replacing them with real tests.
4. CMake picks up new .cpp files automatically on the next build (globbing with CONFIGURE_DEPENDS) — no need to edit CMakeLists.txt.

Dev workflow (uv-based, no pip)

Activate the venv created by setup_vecta.sh:

source .venv/bin/activate

Rebuild + reinstall the Python module after changing C++ code:

uv pip install -e . --no-build-isolation

Run Python tests:

pytest

Run C++ tests (separate dev build, not part of the Python wheel). A plain cmake invocation doesn't automatically know where pybind11's CMake config lives the way pip/uv pip install does, so point it there explicitly:

PYBIND11_CMAKE_DIR=$(python -c "import pybind11; print(pybind11.get_cmake_dir())")
cmake -S . -B build-tests -DVECTA_BUILD_TESTS=ON -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$PYBIND11_CMAKE_DIR"
cmake --build build-tests
ctest --test-dir build-tests --output-on-failure