On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 13:35, Ondrej Certik <ond...@certik.cz> wrote: > On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 11:30 AM, Brian Granger <ellisonbg....@gmail.com> > wrote: >> On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 11:27 AM, Ondrej Certik <ond...@certik.cz> wrote: >>> On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 11:11 AM, Tim Lahey <tim.la...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 2:04 PM, Brian Granger <ellisonbg....@gmail.com> >>>> wrote: >>>>> I propose renaming .evalf() -> .N(). >>>> >>>> -1. First, it would break existing code. Second, I see the point in >>>> having both. First, >>>> evalf is what Maple calls it while N is what Mathematica calls it. So, >>>> it's handy for >>>> people switching. >>>> >>>> Since I'm a Maple user, I'd argue for evalf replacing N if that was >>>> the case. However, >>>> I think eliminating one is a bad idea. >>> >>> SymPy currently has both .evalf() and .n() methods. We also have a N() >>> global function. It's kind of a mess, I agree. >> >> Coming from Mathematica, evalf is confusing for me. But, if maple >> users are familiar with evalf I think it makes sense to keep it. But >> then, let simply also make .N a method so it is consistent. > > Sage also only has the .n() method and a N() function. > > So should we have all .evalf(), .n() and .N() methods? If someone > expects to have .N() too, we can do that (Sage doesn't have it and no > one seems to complain though).
FWIW, I think this kind of consistency is overrated. What looks nice as a method doesn't always look nice as a function. Users coming from other languages expect all kinds of unreasonable things. -- 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 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sympy" group. To post to this group, send email to sy...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sympy+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sympy?hl=en.
