[Numpy-discussion] pareto docstring

[Pauli Virtanen]

Tue, 11 May 2010 00:23:52 -0700, T J wrote:
[clip]
> It seems reasonable that we might have to follow the deprecation route,
> but I'd be happier with a "faster" fix.
> 
> 1.5
>   - Provide numpy.random.lomax.  Make numpy.random.pareto raise a
>     DeprecationWarning and then call lomax.
>
> 2.0 (if there is no 1.6)
>   - Make numpy.random.pareto behave as Pareto distribution of 1st kind.

I think the next Numpy release will be 2.0.

How things were done with changes in the histogram function were:

1) Add a "new=False" keyword argument, and raise a DeprecationWarning
   if new==False. The user then must call it with "pareto(..., new=True)"
   to get the correct behaviour.

2) In the next release, change the default to "new=True".

Another option would be to add a correct implementation with a different 
name, e.g. `pareto1` to signal it's the first kind, and deprecate the old 
function altogether.

A third option would be just to silently fix the bug. In any case the 
change should be mentioned noticeably in the release notes.

-- 
Pauli Virtanen