[SciPy-Dev] scipy.signal function naming

[Irvin Probst]

On Thu, 26 Feb 2015 11:13:32 +0000 (UTC), Sturla Molden wrote:
>
>> +1 for more readable names, and putting the MATLAB-equivalent names 
>> in the
>> docstring.
>
> I don't think it should be in the docstring because it might indicate 
> we
> are making a plagiate of MATLAB, which in itself is an IP violation, 
> even
> if nothing is copied. Instructions on porting from MATLAB to NumPy or 
> SciPy
> could go in a book, pdf or a wiki page, but not the doctring.

If I may put in my two cents...
My full time job is teaching and around 50% of this time is dedicated 
to using computers for solving scientific problems with my students. 
Four of five years ago we started to teach Numpy/Scipy as an alternative 
to Matlab and I can not stress enough how utterly important it is to 
provide a cookbook with instructions on how to get started for people 
accustomed to Matlab. I have very bad memories of a day when the 
Internet went down and http://wiki.scipy.org/NumPy_for_Matlab_Users was 
not available.
So, I have no clue on what can be seen as MATLAB plagiarism or not, but 
from my user point of view if scipy chooses to have a different and more 
readable API you'll shoot yourself in the foot if you don't provide an 
easy way to find MATLAB<->Scipy equivalents in the docstring.

-- 
Irvin