[Numpy-discussion] unexpected behavior of na.where (no short-circuiting)

[Sebastian Haase]

Hi,
I was very surprised when I got this warning:
>>> a = na.arange(4)-2
>>> na.where(a != 0,1./a, 999)
Warning: Encountered divide by zero(s)  in divide
[  -0.5   -1.   999.     1. ]

Then I realized that this is generally referred to as (not) "short 
circuiting" (e.g. in the case of the '?:'-C-operator, the middle part never 
gets evaluated at all if the first part evals to 0 )

Especially annoying was this because (for debugging) I had set this 
error-mode:
>>> na.Error.setMode(dividebyzero="error")

My questions are:
 a) Did other people encounter this problem ?
 b) What is the general feeling about this actually being a "problem" ?
 c) Could this (at all possible) be implemented differently ?

Thanks,
Sebastian Haase