Replace __new__ componentwise

[alexfikl]

Fixes #246.

[inducer]

Thanks! One thing that went through my head is whether we should outright deprecate direct constructor calls that bypass the factory functions.

[inducer]

Implied but not said: how do you feel about that idea?

[alexfikl]

Thanks! One thing that went through my head is whether we should outright deprecate direct constructor calls that bypass the factory functions.

Calling the constructor directly should still be ok for "internal" code though, right? e.g. all the mappers call the constructor directly.

[inducer]

Calling the constructor directly should still be ok for "internal" code though, right? e.g. all the mappers call the constructor directly.

Yes, definitely. One question is whether we'll make them pass a flag to say, "I'm internal!"

[alexfikl]

Yes, definitely. One question is whether we'll make them pass a flag to say, "I'm internal!"

I don't know, I agree that we should discourage that somehow, but maybe a little blurb in the docs will do the trick? I'm mostly hesitant because: adding a little flag is annoying + none of the other expressions have a deprecated constructor.

[inducer]

This is awesome. Thanks so much for doing this!