[Numpy-discussion] untenable matrix behavior in SVN

[Alan G Isaac]

On Sat, 26 Apr 2008, Gael Varoquaux apparently wrote:
> We may desagree on what is Right, but the breaks backward 
> compatibility, and thus is a breakage and should be given 
> a lot of thought. 


I agree with this.  I am a matrix user, and I have given it 
a lot of thought.  I have been making this case for a *long* 
time.  It has come to a head because of the announced desire 
to severely constrain API changes moving forward.

As I am best able to understand you abstract view, the right 
thing to do would be for matrices to raise an error in 
response to a scalar index.  However, I deduce, you would 
just leave things alone to avoid backward incompatibility.

I weight the future more heavily.  We are approaching a last 
chance to do things better, and we should seize it.

The right questions looking forward:

        - what behavior allows the most generic code?
        - what behavior breaks fewest expectations?
        - what behavior is most useful?

Cheers,
Alan Isaac

PS I cannot recall: do you use matrices?