[Numpy-discussion] Going toward time-based release ?

[Robert Kern]

On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 2:08 AM, Jarrod Millman <millman at berkeley.edu> wrote:
>  Are you saying that the changes to histogram and median should require
>  waiting until 2.0--several years from now?  When I say that we may
>  allow minor API breakage this is the kind of thing I mean.  I think
>  that both instances are very reasonable and clean up minor warts.  I
>  also think that in both cases the implementation plan is reasonable.
>  They first provide the new functionality as an option in a new minor
>  release, then in the subsequent release switch the new functionality
>  to the default but leave the old behavior accessable.

I think they are tolerable. Like I said, I don't think our yardstick
should be "reasonableness". Reason is too easily fooled in these
instances.

>  The MA situation was handled slightly differently, which is
>  unfortunate.  I think that it is a reasonable change to make in a
>  minor release, but we should have provided a warning first.  At least,
>  we are providing the old code still.  Do you think that we should
>  revisit this issue?  Since we are importing the new MA from a
>  different location maybe we should move the old code back to it's
>  original location.  Would it be reasonable to have:
>  from numpy import ma  -->  new code
>  from numpy.core import ma  --> old code w/ a deprecation warning

I think that might be better, yes.

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless
enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as
though it had an underlying truth."
 -- Umberto Eco