[SciPy-Dev] Name for Page's L test

[rlucas7 at vt.edu]

IIUC this is a test of monotonicity, that is what is implied w/the colloquial expression “trending upward”, so I’m confused as to why this isn’t a trend. 

Perhaps the author has conflated the more specific “Linear trend”?

It seems like a *monotone* test, maybe something that indicates monotone? (That would at least be descriptive)

e.g. ‘page_monotone’, a ‘_test’ could be added if we want that part consistent but it’s a long name at that point. 

I could also see arguments for dropping ‘page’ from the name. The test isn’t a standard/ubiquitous one like t or binomial tests so the need for following a convention is less. 

Unless we want to match R in naming.

My 2cents. 

-Lucas Roberts 

> On Jan 5, 2021, at 12:13 PM, Robert Kern <robert.kern at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Tue, Jan 5, 2021 at 12:10 PM Robert Kern <robert.kern at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>>> On Tue, Jan 5, 2021 at 11:53 AM Warren Weckesser <warren.weckesser at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hey all,
>>> 
>>> Matt Haberland has implemented Page's L test in the pull request
>>> https://github.com/scipy/scipy/pull/12531.  I'd like to merge the PR,
>>> but Ralf has suggested that the name, `pagel`, is "a terrible name",
>>> and has suggested `page_test` or `page_l_test`. (See the comments at
>>> https://github.com/scipy/scipy/pull/12531#pullrequestreview-447123727.)
>>> Matt's reasoning for `pagel` is that it is consistent with the style
>>> used for many other tests in stats.  I don't have a strong preference,
>>> and when that happens in such a case, I tend to go with the original
>>> author's preference.  I think Ralf prefers to have "test" in the name.
>>> Some existing tests do, but many others don't.
>>> 
>>> Anyone else have an opinion?  Either about this specific case, or
>>> about the general question of  objective criteria for a "good" name?
>> 
>> Wikipedia suggests that it is also known as Page's trend test, which might make for a more informative function name.
>> 
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page%27s_trend_test
> 
> Counterpoint: "The Page test is not a trend test"
> 
> https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/cultevo/vignettes/page.test.html 
> 
> -- 
> Robert Kern
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