Re: Deprecate nfields function?

[John W. Eaton]

On 03/01/2014 01:15 PM, Daniel J Sebald wrote:
> On 03/01/2014 12:06 PM, Lukas Reichlin wrote:
> > On 01.03.2014, at 17:21, Rik<address@hidden>  wrote:
> >
> > > Would anyone be heartbroken if we deprecated the nfields function in
> > > version 4.2?
> >
> > Yes, I'm using it in the control package and I think it's a handy
> > function.
>
> I'm indifferent about the shortcut being in the core (it's so short,
> doesn't seem to hurt), but why nfields() as opposed to numfield() to be
> more consistent with numel()?

I suspect nfields is older than numel (a name that was invented by TMW 
because length was already taken and defined in a strange way that is 
not equivalent to numel).  And I just chose nfields because it seemed 
like a good idea the time.  It's easy to look back and say that a past 
decision wasn't perfect.  It's much harder to know whether a decision 
you make now will still seem like a good idea 20 years later...

jwe