[Numpy-discussion] Handling of backward compatibility

[Stefan van der Walt]

On Tue, Aug 01, 2006 at 06:21:49PM -0600, Travis Oliphant wrote:
> I'm wondering about whether or not some additional effort should be 
> placed in numpy.oldnumeric so that replacing Numeric with 
> numpy.oldnumeric actually gives no compatibility issues (i.e. the only 
> thing you have to change is replace imports with new names).     In 
> other words a simple array sub-class could be created that mimics the 
> old Numeric array and the old functions could be created as well with 
> the same arguments.
> 
> The very same thing could be done with numarray.  This would make 
> conversion almost trivial. 
> 
> Then, the convertcode script could be improved to make all the changes 
> that would take a oldnumeric-based module to a more modern numpy-based 
> module.   A similar numarray script could be developed as well.
> 
> What do people think?  Is it worth it?   This could be a coding-sprint 
> effort at SciPy.

This sounds like a very good idea to me.  I hope that those of us who
cannot attend SciPy 2006 can still take part in the coding sprints, be
it via IRC or some other communications media.

Cheers
Stéfan