Raymond Hettinger <raymond.hettin...@gmail.com> added the comment:

Thanks for the suggestion.  You are right about *x*, *n*, or *a* being the best 
possible parameter name.   That said, it doesn't seem to have ever caused a 
problem in practice (this API has been around for a very long time), so I'm 
reluctant to create any disruption (breaking existing code) with a deprecation 
for something with so little benefit (this docstrings are very clear about what 
the parameter means).  There is also the matter of possible confusion with the 
seed() method which uses the *a* or the internal _randommodule.c that uses *n* 
but doesn't allow keyword arguments).

I think the lesson here is that parameter names should be carefully considered 
when a new API is created rather than decades after its release into the wild.

----------
resolution:  -> rejected
stage: patch review -> resolved
status: open -> closed

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Python tracker <rep...@bugs.python.org>
<https://bugs.python.org/issue33910>
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