[Numpy-discussion] dtype repr change?

[Matthew Brett]

Hi,

On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 3:23 PM, Mark Wiebe <mwwiebe at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 5:07 PM, Gael Varoquaux
> <gael.varoquaux at normalesup.org> wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 04:59:17PM -0500, Mark Wiebe wrote:
>> >    but ultimately NumPy needs the ability to change its repr and other
>> >    details like it in order to progress as a software project.
>>
>> You have to understand that numpy is the core layer on which people have
>> build pretty huge scientific codebases with fairly little money flowing
>> in to support. Any minor change to numpy cause turmoils in labs and is
>> delt by people (student or researchers) on their spare time. I am not
>> saying that there should not be any changes to numpy, just that the costs
>> and benefits of these changes need to be weighted carefully. Numpy is not
>> a young and agile project its a foundation library.
>
> That's absolutely true. In my opinion, the biggest consequence of this is
> that great caution needs to be taken during the release process, something
> that Ralf has done a commendable job on.

You seem to be saying that if - say - you - put in some backwards
incompatibility during development then you are expecting:

a) Not to do anything about this until release time and
b) That Ralf can clear all that up even though you made the changes.

I am sure that most people, myself included, are very glad that you
are trying to improve the numpy internals, and know that that is hard,
and will cause breakage, from time to time.

On the other hand, if we tell you about breakages or
incompatibilities, and you tell us 'go fix it yourself', or 'Ralf can
fix it later' then that can

a) cause bad feeling and
b) reduce community ownership of the code and
c) make us anxious about stability.

Cheers,

Matthew