
Hi Nathaniel,
Sure. But the only reason this is in 1.6 is that the person who made the change never mentioned it to anyone else, so it wasn't noticed until after 1.6 came out. If it had gone through proper review/mailing list discussion (like we're doing now) then it's very unlikely it would have gone in in its present form.
This is also a good point; I didn't realize that was how it was handled. Ultimately, the people who have to make this decision are the people who actually do the work -- and that means the core numpy maintainers. We've had a great discussion and I certainly feel like my input has been respected. Although I still disagree with the change, I certainly see that it's not as simple as I first thought. At this point the discussion has gone on for about 70 emails so far and I think I've said all I can. Thanks again for being willing to engage with users like this... numpy is an unusual project in that regard. I imagine that once the change is released (scheduled for 2.0?) the broader community will also be happy to provide input. Andrew