[Numpy-discussion] Don't like the short names like lstsq and irefft

[David M. Cooke]

After working with them for a while, I'm going to go on record and say that I
prefer the long names from Numeric and numarray (like linear_least_squares,
inverse_real_fft, etc.), as opposed to the short names now used by default in
numpy (lstsq, irefft, etc.). I know you can get the long names from
numpy.dft.old, numpy.linalg.old, etc., but I think the long names are better
defaults.

Abbreviations aren't necessary unique (quick! what does eig() return by
default?), and aren't necessarily obvious. A Google search for irfft vs.
irefft for instance turns up only the numpy code as (English) matches for
irefft, while irfft is much more common.

Also, Numeric and numarray compatibility is increased by using the long
names: those two don't have the short ones.

Fitting names into 6 characters when out of style decades ago. (I think
MS-BASIC running under CP/M on my Rainbow 100 had a restriction like that!)

My 2 cents...

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|David M. Cooke                      http://arbutus.physics.mcmaster.ca/dmc/
|cookedm at physics.mcmaster.ca