[Numpy-discussion] Handling of backward compatibility

[Alan G Isaac]

On Wed, 02 Aug 2006, Sebastian Haase apparently wrote: 
> Recently someone (Torgil Svensson) here suggested to unify 
> the default argument between a method and a function 
> - I think the discussion was about numpy.var  and it's 
> "axis" argument.  I would be a clear +1  on unifying these 
> and have a clean design of numpy. Consequently the old way 
> of different defaults should be absorbed by the oldnumeric 
> sub module. 

+1

I think this consistency is *really* important for the easy 
acceptance of numpy by new users.  (For a user's 
perspective, I also think is is just good design.)  I expect 
many new users to be "burned" by this inconsistency.

However, as an intermediate run (say 1 year) transition 
measure to the consistent use, I would be comfortable with 
the numpy functions requiring an axis argument.

One user's view,
Alan Isaac