[Numpy-discussion] why two versions of polyfit?

Andreas Hilboll lists at hilboll.de
Sun May 20 11:53:52 EDT 2012


> On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 9:37 AM, Charles R Harris
> <charlesr.harris at gmail.com <mailto:charlesr.harris at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>     On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 9:09 AM, Andreas Hilboll <lists at hilboll.de
>     <mailto:lists at hilboll.de>> wrote:
> 
>         Hi,
> 
>         I just noticed that there's two polyfit functions, one in
>         numpy.lib.polynomial, and one in numpy.polynomial. What's the
>         reason for
>         this? The calling signatures aren't identical (the numpy.polynomial
>         version supports weights), and I couldn't find a notice on why two
>         versions exist.
> 
> 
>     There are two different polynomial objects, Polynomial and poly1d.
>     The Polynomial object is part of a newer group that also contains
>     Lengendre, Chebyshev, etc., and doesn't have some of the problems
>     that poly1d has. Poly1d is an older implementation.

I think it would be beneficial for the user if this fact was noted
somewhere in the docstring of the Poly1d implementation. Especially
since numpy.polyfit is pointing to that old implementation. When I saw
the polyfit function in the numpy namespace, I didn't bother checking if
there's anything more sophisticated.

I could add the appropriate links in the "see also" sections of the
Poly1d docstrings, if you guys agree.

> Oh, and the polyfit function in polynomial.polynomial isn't meant to be
> used directly, it is mostly there to support the fit class function of
> Polynomial. See the documentation here <http://preview.tinyurl.com/8289gfs>.

Ah, okay. Thanks for that.

Cheers,
Andreas.



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