disambiguate "solve"

[ghorn]

Right now solve is both an alias for evaluate and the tool that solves Ax=b. I think we should either drop the evaluate alias or rename the tool to linsolve or something like that.

[jaeandersson]

solve() used to be an alias for evaluate(0,0), but the arguments are now gone. I say drop the alias. Question is if it is natural to ask an NLP solver to "evaluate"? Maybe "execute" would be a better name covering both the use of function evaluation and instruction to solve?

[ghorn]

Question is if it is natural to ask an NLP solver to "evaluate"?

You could ask that question of anything that inherits from Function, which is everything. An LP or QP solver evaluates right now even though it's also solving something. I don't like the idea of having a separate alias for many different Functions.

What's your opinion on renaming the tool to linsolve?

[jaeandersson]

What's your opinion on renaming the tool to linsolve?

Against. Better to remove the alias. No reason to keep two names for the same function.

[ghorn]

I also support removing the alias. But what about also renaming solve to linsolve? I guess the argument would be that it's a shorthand for creating a LinearSolver and applying it? In theory there could be a similar shorthand nonlinsolve for solving an implicit function or something (though that doesn't seem like a good idea to me). Meh

[jaeandersson]

The solve operation will be made essentially redundant when #1053 has been implemented. I don't support renaming it only to remove it later. Also, I think we should stop making here-and-there changes to the API.