lambda -> discount

[zsunberg]

Isn't discount a better name for the discount argument than lambda?

[himanshugupta1009]

Well, I think the people in the community who use Hybrid A* tend to use lambda instead of discount. That's why I chose lambda as the variable name to make it easy to map/understand.

[zsunberg]

They use lambda as a symbol for the discount factor, but do they still call it the discount factor, or do they call it something else?

Which of the following is a more direct conceptual mapping?

• discount -> abstract idea of a discount factor
• lambda -> a particular paper where they used the symbol lambda for the discount factor -> abstract idea of a discount factor

If I have never read a paper that uses lambda for the discount factor, I will have to go look it up. Using mathematical symbols allows for short unambiguous reference within a paper, but if you have to spell out lambda, you might as well use a more direct word.

(To be clear, this is an opinion, so you as the maintainer of this package can choose to ignore it)

[zsunberg]

Really, all of the arguments should be named consistently.

For example,

goal, start_state, actions, dynamics, discretization, transition_cost, heuristic_cost; planning_time, discount is a self-consistent set, using English descriptive words.

G, x_0, A, f, d, g, h; T, lambda would also be a self-consistent set based on symbols used in a particular paper (I am not sure if these are the actual symbols used in any paper, it is just an example)