[Bioperl-l] Inconsitency in return value of Bio::SimpleAlinment::remove_columns()

[Seiji Kumagai]

Hi list,

Yesterday, I reported a small bug relating to 
Bio::SimpleAlign::remove_columns(). My patch was committed to CVS 
immediately thanks to Chris.

I, at the same time, noticed another issue with the method. According to 
the POD, the method returns a new alignment. However, iff argument is not 
passed to it, the return value is $self. I see this may be a problem 
because modifications on the returned value affect the original object 
only if this method is called in the way I mentioned. Secondly, it is just 
confusing to me that returned value is different but superficially 
identical (both are Bio::SimpleAlignment object).

I want to make a modification on this issue by one of the following ways:

1) Make an argument mandatory. If argument is missing, throw an 
exception. It is user's responsibility to handle it properly.

2) Always return new SimpleAlign object. If the argument is not passed, 
return a clone of $self. This may make the scripts run slower and use more 
memory when no argument is given, but modification on new object is 
guaranteed not to affect original object.

3) Do not modify current version.

3.a) Do not modify current version, but state the difference in POD.

What do you think? I personally think the first is the best since calling 
the method but doing nothing is not what users want to do in most of the 
cases. Those rare cases are deserved to be handled by an exception.

Thanks,