So the documentation on the Codex is pretty clear that showposts is deprecated. But that same documentation mentions nothing of numberposts. Instead, posts_per_page is listed.
But if we turn to the Codex docs for get_posts we see no mention of posts_per_page, instead citing numberposts.
In post.php we see what’s happening: numberposts is set up as a default (5), but then copied to posts_per_page (unless posts_per_page is set in the args).
So my question is really quite pedantic, but I’m looking to update Codex so I wanted to ask you guys – is there a reason why we wouldn’t want to just encourage posts_per_page across the board, eventually deprecating numberposts? Or am I missing some critical insight here?