[SciPy-Dev] Mea culpa: deprecation and API changes

[Charles R Harris]

On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 6:36 PM, Warren Weckesser <
warren.weckesser at enthought.com> wrote:

> Charles R Harris wrote:
> >
> >
> > On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 6:11 PM, Warren Weckesser
> > <warren.weckesser at enthought.com
> > <mailto:warren.weckesser at enthought.com>> wrote:
> >
> >     Charles R Harris wrote:
> >     >
> >     >
> >     > On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 5:49 PM, Warren Weckesser
> >     > <warren.weckesser at enthought.com
> >     <mailto:warren.weckesser at enthought.com>
> >     > <mailto:warren.weckesser at enthought.com
> >     <mailto:warren.weckesser at enthought.com>>> wrote:
> >     >
> >     >     Opinion wanted:  codata.find(sub) used to print a list of
> >     strings.  A
> >     >     while ago, in response to
> >     >     http://projects.scipy.org/scipy/ticket/996,  I
> >     >     changed it to return the list of strings.  But this is an
> >     API change,
> >     >     and should follow the deprecation policy.  One way to do
> >     this is to
> >     >     restore find() to its previous behavior, and deprecate the
> >     >     function.  At
> >     >     the same time, add a new function, find_string(sub), which
> >     returns the
> >     >     list of strings.  What do you think?
> >     >
> >     >
> >     > I wouldn't worry about this one, both have the effect of
> >     printing out
> >     > on the screen. Where is the absolute error though?
> >     >
> >
> >     Well, I will worry about it, just not very much.  Think of it as an
> >     exercise in the proper implementation of the deprecation policy--a
> >     tiny
> >     case study.  Trivial, but with educational value. :)
> >
> >     What do you mean by "the absolute error"?
> >
> >
> > codata.precision returns the relative error. Perhaps I am mistaken,
> > but I thought the data was published with the absolute error. Both are
> > useful, of course.
> >
>
>
> It looks like the absolute error is in the strings, in the "uncertainty"
> column.  The original author(s) would have to answer your question about
> the precision() function.  I only touched a couple lines in the find()
> function.
>
>
I was the original author and sent it to the list as an email attachment. I
have no idea when it actually ended up in scipy, but it was several years
later and I didn't know it was there until recently ;)

Chuck
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