[Numpy-discussion] PEP: named axis

[Andrew Jaffe]

Robert Kern wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 03:22, Stéfan van der Walt <stefan@sun.ac.za> wrote:
>> Hi Robert
>>
>> 2009/2/6 Robert Kern <robert.kern@gmail.com>:
>>>> This could be implemented but would require adding information to the
>>>> NumPy array.
>>> More than that, though. Every function and method that takes an axis
>>> or reduces an axis will need to be rewritten. For that reason, I'm -1
>>> on the proposal.
>> Are you -1 on the array dictionary, or on using it to do axis mapping?
> 
> I'm -1 on rewriting every axis= argument to accept strings. 

Maybe I misunderstand the proposal, but, actually, I think this is 
completely the wrong semantics for "axis="  anyway. "axis=" in numpy 
refers to what is also a dimension,  not a  column.

More generally, then, would we restrict this to labeling only the 
column  dimension, or could it be used for any dimension?