I concur with Stefan. Not having datasets in a package seems like the best way to go. There should be a separate go-to place for datasets (other than minimal ones for test cases). 
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<br>I would recommend branching off all datasets... Otherwise we add to Scipy&#39;s already significant size. 
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   On 30/03/2018 at 00:45, Stefan wrote: 
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   On Thu, 29 Mar 2018 15:43:50 -0400, Warren Weckesser wrote:
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    As a steps towards the deprecation of `misc`, I propose that we create a
    <br>new package, `scipy.data`, for holding data sets. `ascent()` and `face()`
    <br>would move there, and the new ECG data set proposed in a current pull
    <br>request (<a href="https://github.com/scipy/scipy/pull/8627">https://github.com/scipy/scipy/pull/8627</a>) would be put there.
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   <br>
  </div>We&#39;ve been doing this in scikit-image for a long time, and now regret<br>having any binary data in the repository; we are working on a way of<br>hosting it outside instead.<br><br>Can we standardize on downloader tools? There are examples in<br>scikit-learn, dipy, and many other packages. We were thinking of a very<br>lightweight spec + tools for solving this problem a while ago, but never<br>got very far:<br><br><a href="https://github.com/data-pack/data-pack/pull/1/files">https://github.com/data-pack/data-pack/pull/1/files</a><br><br>Best regards<br>Stéfan
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