[Numpy-discussion] Proposal to accept NEP-18, __array_function__ protocol

[Marten van Kerkwijk]

On Wed, Aug 29, 2018 at 9:53 AM Matthew Rocklin <mrocklin at gmail.com> wrote:

> > On the backwards compatibility: from an astropy perspective, I would
> expect that the introduction of `__array_function__` implies a guarantee
> that the *functionality* it provides will remain,
>
> My guess is that you wouldn't have this expectation if Numpy released this
> feature with explicit "Experimental" warnings  attached to it.   In that
> case astropy might just wait before adopting it until that label was
> dropped.  Projects that were more risk-friendly would then take on the
> burden of trying it out, working out some kinks, and then hopefully in a
> version or two the "Experimental" label would be dropped and astropy would
> step in and adopt it more safely.
>
> Well, I guess I'll be proving Nathaniel right: I would *definitely* start
using __array_function__ in astropy - not being able to concatenate
Quantity and other instances which use it has been a long-standing pain.

I do think that even for an experimental feature one should be allowed to
expect that there will continue to be a way provided by numpy to access the
same functionality, i.e., once we allow people to do
`np.concatenate(list-of-mimics)`, I think we should consider ourselves
committed to providing some way to continue doing that -  the experimental
tag should only imply that we are not committed to the precise method with
which that can be achieved. (Of course, I can be a bit more cavalier than
most, since I am hopeful I can help ensure that some method will continue
to be present; indeed, the same happened for __array_ufunc__ - I had
already written a __numpy_ufunc__ implementation in Quantity and when that
stalled in numpy, I picked up and finished the __array_ufunc__ code that
Nathan had written.)

-- Marten
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