1. We can't change a public method without warning. We typically mark methods or parameters as obsolete for 2 releases before removing something.
2. We aren't accepting changes in the support classes right now. We're meeting next week to decide how to approach this section of the code going forward.

1. We can't change a public method without warning.

resurrected default None argument.
old locate_with(...).near(elem) style call still works with default distance argument, but need to use different name for near(element_or_locator, distance) method?

2. We aren't accepting changes in the support classes right now.

sure.
hope near locating will be able to use with custom distance in the future.

Codecov Report

Attention: 5 lines in your changes are missing coverage. Please review.

Comparison is base (1d14b55) 57.65% compared to head (02b4a30) 58.03%.
Report is 115 commits behind head on trunk.

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@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##            trunk   #13082      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   57.65%   58.03%   +0.37%     
==========================================
  Files          86       86              
  Lines        5281     5319      +38     
  Branches      208      204       -4     
==========================================
+ Hits         3045     3087      +42     
  Misses       2028     2028              
+ Partials      208      204       -4     

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The "issue" is that Java and C# already accept distance as a parameter. JavaScript and Python don't, and I did not understand the Ruby code to know whether it accepts it.

the main issue is following near method looks like to take single int parameter, but it doesn't work.

    def near(self, element_or_locator_distance: Union[WebElement, Dict, int] = None) -> "RelativeBy":

the main issue is following near method looks like to take single int parameter, but it doesn't work.

    def near(self, element_or_locator_distance: Union[WebElement, Dict, int] = None) -> "RelativeBy":

Good point. Where can I see the failed test that shows the bug on the current implementation?

running test on faddc1b clearly shows near(123) fails with InvalidArgumentException

@pinterior can you please fix the linting so I can merge this?