[PYTHON MATRIX-SIG] More naming/module issues

[Michael McLay]

James Crotinger writes:
 > David Ascher writes:
 >  > > The names selected for modules,classes, and functions should be
 >  > > spelled out in full for a general package called Numeric.
 >  > > 
 >  > > 	Numeric.LinearAlgebra
 >  > > 	Numeric.FourierTransform
 >  > > 	Numeric.RandomNumbers
 >  > > 
 >  > > I dropped the term Fast from FourierTransform because it seems obvious
 >  > > that you would want to do it fast and I don't recall ever hearing
 >  > > about anyone using something other than an FFT.  The nature of the
 >  > > algorithm used could be incorporated into a docstring, rather than
 >  > > encoded in the name.
 >  > 
 >  > I agree with the package idea, but I think that Konrad's point about
 >  > signal processing is good as well.
 >  > 
 >  > 	Numeric.SignalProcessing instead of Numeric.FourierTransform.
 >  > 
 > 
 >   Except that FFT's are used for a lot more than just signal processing. 

Yes, it's used in surface roughness calculations.

Of course you could have Numeric.SignalProcessing include the line:

	from Numeric.FourierTransform import *

Now anyone who reads the Numeric.SignalProcessing will learn that it
uses the general purpose FourierTransform.  Everyone can use their 
own favorite name for the same object, but the obscure names can
be traced back to a sensible name.

 >   Also, "Fourier Transform" usually refers to the continuous
 > transform.  The FFT is an algorithm for efficiently performing the
 > Discrete Fourier Transform.  It is so commonly used that I'd
 > just call it FFT. 

Good point.  I guess we need a DiscreteFourierTransform and a
ContinuousFourierTransform module.  That capture more of the
algorithm's intent than the name FFT.

Thanks for helping demonstrate that historic names are often not
intuitive:-) 

Now I do see a downside to this grand plan.  It will make writing
browsers for the library a bit trickier and it adds an additional step
to the process of tracing back the meaning of a name.  Is the improved
precision worth the added work?


Michael


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