Why replace isequalwithequalnans with isequaln?

Regarding the switch in 2012a [1]:

 Other Functionality Being Removed or Changed

 Functionality: isequalwithequalnans
 What Happens When You Use This Functionality: Still Runs
 Use This Instead: isequaln
 Compatibility Considerations: Replace all instances of isequalwithequalnans with isequaln.

Comments [2,3] have suggested that the reason for the switch is just to shorten the name of the function. Is this the true change, or is there any other benefit (performance) to consider in the new function?

Thanks for your comments.

[1] http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/release-notes.html

[2] http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/42758-comparing-matices-that-contain-numbers-and-nans#body_comment_87899

[3] http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/49623-being-equal-two-matrics-contaning-nans-and-numbers-smaller-than-1#body_comment_102719

Answer 1

[Jan]

As long as isequalwithequalnans is still support, I cannot see a problem.

I assume the new function name isequaln was chosen, because the old one is the most ugly function name I've ever seen.

[Steve Eddins]

Jan's answer is basically correct.

[David]

Thanks, Jan & Steve. Is there any forecast on when or whether isequalwithequalnans will be removed?

This will help us plan when setting system requirements for our production software.

[Jan]

@David: There have been and will be much more substantial changes than just the name of this function.

In my startup.m file a folder depending on the running Matlab version is included, which stores functions for forward and backward compatibility. On demand you can add a function in such a folder for patches:

function Out = isequalwithequalnans(varargin)
Out = isequaln(varargin{:});

[Felipe G. Nievinski]

Never overemphasized: It'll break backwards compatibility!

If you don't want to bother with conditional seach-path inclusion, just create the following file isequaln.m:

function varargout = isequaln (varargin)
    try
        [varargout{1:nargout}] = builtin ('isequaln', varargin{:});
    catch
        [varargout{1:nargout}] = builtin ('isequalwithequalnans', varargin{:});
    end
end

Fortunately warnings identified as 'MATLAB:dispatcher:nameConflict' will only be issued once, not everytime the function is called.