The problem I see with C is that it will break compatibility with the other histogram functions, which also use bins.

So here is suggestion E:

The most common use case ( I think) is the following:
h, b = histogram(r, number_of_bins, normed=True/False) for which the function behaves correctly.

Assuming we want the next version to : ignore values outside of range and accept and return the bin edges instead of the left edges, here could be the new signature for 1.1:
h, edges = histogram(a, bins=10, normed=False, range=None, normed=False, new=False)

If new=False, return the histogram and the left edges, with a warning that in the next version, the edges will be returned. If new=True, return the histogram and the edges.
If range is given explicitly , raise a warning saying that in the next version, the outliers will be ignored. To ignore outliers, use new=True.
If bins is a sequence, raise an error saying that bins should be an integer. To use explicit edges, use new=True.

In 1.2, set new=True as the default, and in 2.3, remove new altogether.

David

2008/4/24 Travis E. Oliphant <oliphant@enthought.com>:

Pauli Virtanen wrote:
>
> C) Create a new parameter with more sensible behavior and a name
> different from "bins", and deprecate (at least giving sequences to) the
> "bins" parameter: put up a DeprecationWarning if the user does this, but
> still produce the same results as the old histogram. This way the user
> can forward-port her code at leisure.
>

> D) Or, retain the old behavior (values below lowest bin ignored) and
> just fix the docstring and the normed=True bug? (I have a patch doing
> this.)
>
>
> So which one (or something else) do we choose for 1.1.0?
>
>

I like either C or D, but prefer C if it can be done before 1.1.0.

-Travis

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