On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 09:41, Charles R Harris <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 8:25 AM, Alan G Isaac <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Rather than just looking for a new name (e.g., znormal), >> would it not be better to decide on a syntax for specifying >> PRNG algorithms? (E.g., MATLAB takes such an >> approach: >> http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/math/brt5wsv.html) >> >> Wouldn't this meet the need for replicability with much greater >> generality? > > That's probably a better idea. The sort functions have the 'kind' keyword to > select between three algorithms and such an addition to the random number > functions might be a good thing to have for the future if other algorithms > get updated/changed. If such a keyword is added it can be given a value of > None where there are no selections available.
There is a good design principle that when you have a keyword argument which you only expect to pass literals to, you should make multiple functions instead (Book of Guido, 7:42). It's worth noting that this MATLAB API is deprecated. -- Robert Kern "I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth." -- Umberto Eco _______________________________________________ NumPy-Discussion mailing list [email protected] http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion
