[Numpy-discussion] ma is in scipy_core

[Tim Churches]

Eric Firing wrote:
> 
>> OK, thanks. In the absence of documentation, I just looked for an MA
>> subdirectory, couldn't find one and assumed that it wasn't (yet)
>> supported.
> 
> 
> Tim,
> 
> Documentation is coming along, but being made available in an unusual
> way: http://www.tramy.us/

Yes. I don't mind paying about AUD$50 for a copy of the SciPy Core
documentation in order to expedite its production, but the Total Price
and Total Time parameters as they currently stand are ridiculous: $300k
represents about 7 or 8 thousand copies - and although there may be that
many users of NumPy worldwide, realistically only a proportion of them
will migrate to SciPy Core and of those, only a proportion will buy a
copy of the documentation. Most likely, one copy of the documentation
will be purchased to be shared between several (or many) users in a
workgroup within an institution. Thus, the $300k mark is unlikely to be
reached and it will be 7 years before the documentation is freely
available. Given that the lifecycle of projects like NumPy or SciPy Core
is of that same order of magnitude, it effectively means that the
documentation for SciPy Core will not be free for most or all of its
lifespan. That is a pretty severe limitation and one which end users
should carefully consider before converting to SciPy Core.

I would say that perhaps $30k or one year (after completion of the
documentation) would be more reasonable criteria for making the
documentation freely available (but then I am not writing it).

Tim C