[Numpy-discussion] numpy histogram normed=True (bug / confusing behavior)

[Charles R Harris]

On Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 2:47 PM, Robert Kern <robert.kern at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 15:32, David Huard <david.huard at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Nils and Joseph,
> > Thanks for the bug report, this is now fixed in SVN (r8672).
>
> While we're at it, can we change the name of the argument? "normed"
> has caused so much confusion over the years. We could deprecate
> normed=True in favor of pdf=True or density=True.
>
> We may even want to consider leaving the normed=True implementation
> alone with just the deprecation warning. While the behavior is
> incorrect, it is also very long-standing and something that people
> might simply have coded around. Changing the behavior without
> deprecation might break their workarounds silently. I admit it's a bit
> of a stretch, but conservativeness and coupled with the opportunity to
> make a desirable name change make this more attractive.
>
>
I think that's a good approach. One possibility is do have density override
normed, something like

if density is not None:
    flowers and unicorns
else:
    same old same old

Chuck
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