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Design #1151

ConcatList or ConcatLists

Added by John Abbott about 6 years ago. Updated about 3 years ago.

Status:
Closed
Priority:
Normal
Assignee:
John Abbott
Category:
Renaming
Target version:
CoCoA-5.4.0
Start date:
25 Jan 2018
Due date:
% Done:

100%

Estimated time:
0.77 h
Spent time:
0.65 h

Description

CoCoA-5 has both ConcatList and ConcatLists. They are identical.

We should keep just one.

2021-01 Decided for ConcatLists

History

#1 Updated by John Abbott about 6 years ago

In the current version (5.2.2) the fn ConcatList is built-in, while ConcatLists is defined in list.cpkg5 and simply calls ConcatList.

CoCoA-4.7 has a fn called ConcatLists. So choosing to keep ConcatLists and discard ConcatList would be backward compatible.

Note that there are other fns whose names end in List: namely ConcatHorList, ConcatVerList and IntersectionList.

It would not be too hard to rename ConcatHorList to ConcatHor (and ConcatVerList to ConcatVer). This creates no ambiguity since the existing ConcatHor function expects 2 args rather than 1.

#2 Updated by Anna Maria Bigatti about 6 years ago

  • Status changed from New to In Progress
  • % Done changed from 0 to 10

The reason why the builtin function is called ...List is that this is the naming convention for functions operating on a list (instead of being n-ary): ConcatHorList, IntersectionList, ...
The fact that concat operates on lists (instead of matrices or ideals) just causes the confusion.

In essence, ConcatList is the "good name", and ConcatLists is just for backward compatibility:
should it be obsolescent?

#3 Updated by John Abbott about 6 years ago

  • Description updated (diff)

Personally I find the name ConcatLists more "natural" because it concatenates many lists.

The fns ConcatVerList and ConcatHorList are used just once in the packages for the fn BlockMat (in mat.cpkg5). I find it hard to believe that they are useful to anyone...

#4 Updated by John Abbott almost 6 years ago

  • Target version changed from CoCoA-5.2.4 to CoCoA-5.3.0

#5 Updated by John Abbott over 4 years ago

  • Target version changed from CoCoA-5.3.0 to CoCoA-5.4.0

#6 Updated by Anna Maria Bigatti over 3 years ago

  • Description updated (diff)
  • Status changed from In Progress to Feedback
  • Assignee set to John Abbott
  • % Done changed from 10 to 90
  • Estimated time set to 2.00 h

John Abbott wrote:

Personally I find the name ConcatLists more "natural" because it concatenates many lists.

OK, you convinced me.

#7 Updated by John Abbott about 3 years ago

  • Status changed from Feedback to Closed
  • % Done changed from 90 to 100
  • Estimated time changed from 2.00 h to 0.77 h

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