Hello everybody, This post is meant to keep everybody updated on what is being done in #17898 [1]. See also the previous sage-devel thread [2].
The problem: Because a function named IntegerListsLex returns wrong results [5] and does not check its input, a stopgap [3] was added in #17548 [4]. As this function is used by *many* others, a warning appears in *many* combinat functions. It has been claimed that some of these functions are correct despite relying on IntegerListsLex, and that the warning worries users needlessly. What #17898 does: The branch at #17898 *removes* the stopgap from IntegerListsLex without fixing the function, but a stopgap is shown to whoever calls IntegerListsLex *directly* from Sage (only the version of IntegerListsLex in the global namespace shows the warning). Consequences: All internal calls to a function which we *know* [5] returns wrong results occasionally will *NOT* display a warning (and this function is called indirectly in a lot of places). Of course, all "hidden" calls to IntegerListsLex by regular users (i.e. when we call "Partitions" from the [command line/notebook]) do *not* display a warning either. I personally believe that what we are about to do is a dangerous lowering of our standards when it comes to wrong results. This is a danger to our own computations, but also to all users who run this software and trust our work. I strongly oppose what is being done here, but I do not want to continue the [positive_review/needs_work] fight from #17898 any further if I am the only one to find this wrong. Thus, again, I ask for your input. The problem ahead is the bug, not the warning. Nathann [1] http://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/17898 [2] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sage-devel/vI8xM [3] http://www.sagemath.org/doc/developer/trac.html#stopgaps [4] http://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/17548 [5] http://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/17898#comment:28 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-devel" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
