heapify method is a misnomer in that it is actually the make-heap or build-heap procedure from textbooks

The "-ify" or "-fy" suffix in English means "to make". For example, "amplify", "magnify", "terrify", etc.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-ify

So heapify literally means "make into a heap". Not only is the name correct, but it is a better name for an in-place operation than either of the terms you give:

* "build-heap" does not describe an in-place operation;
* "make-heap" is ambiguous in whether it is in-place or not.

But even if we agreed that the name needs to change to match text books (which text books?), since heapify is a public function, we cannot just change the name. We would have to keep the old name around for many, many years, possibly forever.

This ticket is not intended to rename heapify method in the stdlib (its too
late for that). This is to merely add a clarification in the docs to state
that heapify here has a different connotation than what's used in standard
algorithmic literature (CLRS, Sedgewick etc).  See here
https://xlinux.nist.gov/dads/HTML/heapify.html

References:
https://algs4.cs.princeton.edu/24pq/
http://math.utoledo.edu/~codenth/Fall_16/4380/heap-hw.pdf

On Fri, Feb 14, 2020 at 2:00 PM Steven D'Aprano <report@bugs.python.org>
wrote:

>
> Steven D'Aprano <steve+python@pearwood.info> added the comment:
>
> The "-ify" or "-fy" suffix in English means "to make". For example,
> "amplify", "magnify", "terrify", etc.
>
>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wiktionary.org_wiki_-2Dify&d=DwIFaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=owI_YZl60rgj74U9tzqxcA&m=jUulcI-27ChSIukpI4uzg0LktqA5zRt9HI8Lz0JxRYU&s=o95nXSmjNMCHMbmoWeL7LildI9qwEdnusnlAOenreQ4&e=
>
> So heapify literally means "make into a heap". Not only is the name
> correct, but it is a better name for an in-place operation than either of
> the terms you give:
>
> * "build-heap" does not describe an in-place operation;
> * "make-heap" is ambiguous in whether it is in-place or not.
>
> But even if we agreed that the name needs to change to match text books
> (which text books?), since heapify is a public function, we cannot just
> change the name. We would have to keep the old name around for many, many
> years, possibly forever.
>
> ----------
> nosy: +steven.daprano
>
> _______________________________________
> Python tracker <report@bugs.python.org>
> <
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__bugs.python.org_issue39634&d=DwIFaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=owI_YZl60rgj74U9tzqxcA&m=jUulcI-27ChSIukpI4uzg0LktqA5zRt9HI8Lz0JxRYU&s=kE5QfuakDzLUOPpeWAGCf7Z0zJeeeC1iDUSj-bMFzrE&e=
> >
> _______________________________________
>

Thank you, but I'm going to decline this suggestion.

The docs are pretty clear about what heapify does:

* "To create a heap, use a list initialized to [], or you can transform a populated list into a heap via function heapify()."

* "Transform list x into a heap, in-place, in linear time."