[Numpy-discussion] packaging scipy (was Re: Simple financial functions for NumPy)

[Steven H. Rogers]

Perry Greenfield wrote:
> ...
> Some random comments:
>
> 1) It seems to me that the primary problem people have with a big  
> flat namespace is that it makes the output of dir() long and  
> unusable, and by implication, that a nice hierarchical organization  
> would make it easier for people to find stuff. As to the latter, less  
> so than you might think. From what I've seen, there is no generally  
> agreed upon organization that all will agree to or find intuitive.  
> There will always be functions that logically belong to more than one  
> category. Ultimately, this is why flatter is better as far as that  
> goes. If one wants to find things by category, we would be much  
> better off tagging functions with categories and then building some  
> dir-like tool that helps display things in that category. Some have  
> already alluded to that (Joe Harrington I believe). The only thing  
> namespaces solve is name collisions imho. I don't believe that the  
> current numpy has too many names in its basic namespace, and it  
> already has split out some things into subpackages (fft, random,  
> linear algebra) that have such a potential.
>   
At the IPython Sprint in Boulder last year Fernando suggested that 
someone look at this issue.  I've given it some thought and started a 
wiki page for it.  Inputs would be welcome and might motivate me to find 
the time to implement something.

http://ipython.scipy.org/moin/Developer_Zone/SearchDocs

# Steve