[SciPy-Dev] curve_fit() should require initial values for parameters

[Stefan van der Walt]

On Wed, 30 Jan 2019 14:27:29 -0500, josef.pktd at gmail.com wrote:
> (I'm strongly in favor of trying "defaults" first, and if that doesn't
> work, then dig into or debug likely candidates. in loose analogy of test
> driven development instead of up-front design.)

It seems unlikely that we will reach full agreement in this thread,
given the differing experiences and philosophies at play.  But, that's
probably OK if we can all agree to modify the documentation to be clearer
about the risks of the preset values for p0, how to select better
values, and how to handle failure modes.

This won't 100% address Matt's concerns, but it will go a long way to
keeping users out of trouble, without having to make breaking changes to
the API.

What do you think?

Best regards,
Stéfan