html_url,issue_url,id,node_id,user,created_at,updated_at,author_association,body,reactions,performed_via_github_app,issue
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/4644#issuecomment-738083256,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/4644,738083256,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDczODA4MzI1Ng==,2448579,2020-12-03T15:34:58Z,2020-12-03T15:34:58Z,MEMBER,"@rhkleijn thanks for your thoughtful comment.

> Does xarray have some kind of policy for supporting parameters which might not make sense for all types of duck arrays?

Not AFAIK but it would be good to have one. 

> Another option might be to allow arbitrary **kwargs which will be passed through as-is to the astype method of the underlying array and making it the responsibility of the user to only supply parameters which make sense for that particular array type.

I think this is a good policy.

Another option would be to copy the numpy signature with default `None`
```
def astype(dtype, order=None, casting=None, subok=None, copy=None)
```
and only forward kwargs that are `not None`. This has the advantage of surfacing all available parameters in xarray's documentation, but the default value would not be documented. It seems like only a small improvement over following your proposal and linking to `numpy.ndarray.astype` in the docstring

PS: The ""special case"" logic in astype will be removed, it was added as a temporary fix to preserve backward compatibility.
","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,755607271
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/4644#issuecomment-737528231,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/4644,737528231,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDczNzUyODIzMQ==,2448579,2020-12-02T22:14:50Z,2020-12-02T22:14:50Z,MEMBER,Oops. @rhkleijn This would be a relatively easy fix if you have the time to send in a PR,"{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,755607271