Collecting feedback to inform Array API standard?

mdhaber commented 2 days ago

I'd suggest that we implement a way of collecting information about usage of array-api-extra to inform changes/additions to the array API standard. This doesn't have to be automatic; it could be as simple as documenting a procedure for users to comment on what they are using a given function for and why the existing standard was not enough for them.

The simplest thing I can think of would be to include a standard note in function documentation requesting that users leave a note somewhere (e.g. an issue that corresponds with each function) or fill out a form. Perhaps this could get more sophisticated in time, but maybe start with something as simple as this?

My guess is that you'd get more comments like https://github.com/data-apis/array-api-extra/pull/7#issuecomment-2371828099 (which points out that having expand_dims accept more than one axis is useful and not complicated for any backend to support). Comments in support of features and example use cases are helpful when it's time to file an issue at data-apis/array-api.

lucascolley commented 2 days ago

I'm basically happy with whatever the array API maintainers would find useful w.r.t. this.

asmeurer commented 2 days ago

I think anyone who is going to do that will be open source on GitHub anyways. We can use GitHub code search or maybe the API to do this. We've already done this sort of thing in the past to inform array API decisions https://github.com/data-apis/python-record-api

mdhaber commented 2 days ago

Right, and I've done that before, too. It might still be useful for users to report this sort of thing:

It gives us a pulse of what functions are being used. (However, perhaps it is easy enough to periodically search for all of them.)
It gives us English descriptions of why users felt the need to use array-api-extra functions instead of directly using array-api functions. (However, we could get this by reaching out and asking.)

So it's not information that we can't get otherwise, but it offloads a little work from us and gives users a mechanism for less formal feedback than an RFC at data-apis/array-api.

asmeurer commented 2 days ago

I don't see any issues with asking people to report issues or feedback in the documentation. That's something I usually do anyways. I'm -1 to any sort of actual "analytics".

mdhaber commented 2 days ago

Sounds good. Changed the title accordingly.

data-apis / array-api-extra

Collecting feedback to inform Array API standard? #9