[PYTHON MATRIX-SIG] Naming in arrayobject.c

[David Ascher]

Mostly, I think Paul's suggestions are clear and good.

> copy -> clone         
> 	copy is an ambiguous word as to whether one is the copier or the
> 	copyee. But clone definitely carries more of a feeling that this
>         is going to produce a copy.
>         In Eiffel, x.copy(y) means set x's attributes from y, for example.

This is a little odd since python uses copy generally, I think.
Clone is certainly less ambiguous.
 
> 3. These are not clear to me
> 
> take     -> gather
>         m.take(i_list) returns [m[i_list[0]], m[i_list[1]], ...]
>         Gather is a more traditional name but I won't argue this too hard.

Neither is very intuitive, but since the function isn't either...
 
> conjugate -> conjugated   
> 	Ambiguous as to whether it modifies self.
> 	But, you could make the case "conjugate" is a noun, not a verb
> 	in which case it is ok.

Not really, since my first read was that it was a verb.  It's not what
was intended which should matter, but what is understood.

I'll ask my students tonight what they think of these, and see if I come
up with any interesting feedback.

--david

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