[Numpy-discussion] random.uniform documentation bug?

[Robert Kern]

On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 14:26, Friedrich Romstedt
<friedrichromstedt at gmail.com> wrote:

>> In any case, why
>> would you make this change? It doesn't seem to solve any problem or
>> clear up any semantics. "start" and "stop" imply a stop > start
>> relationship, too, albeit not as strongly.
> Hmm, I thought that start is where the thing starts, and stop where it
> stops, so it's in "virtual time" stop > start, but it can travel
> downwards.  I thought it would help making the semantics more clear.

It helps a little, I agree, but not as much as simply changing the
names to something neutral like (a, b) as in the standard library. The
necessity for a backwards compatibility hack imposes additional costs
to making any such change. I don't think those costs are warranted by
the semantic confusion of allowing high < low.

-- 
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