[Numpy-discussion] Don't like the short names like lstsq and irefft (original) (raw)

David M. Cooke cookedm at physics.mcmaster.ca
Wed Jun 14 23:13:25 EDT 2006


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



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