One can make a case for allowing == and != for complex arrays, but > just doesn't make sense and should not be allowed.
-----Original Message----- From: numpy-discussion-admin@lists.sourceforge.net [mailto:numpy-discussion-admin@lists.sourceforge.net] On Behalf Of Perry Greenfield Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2002 11:52 AM To: eric jones; 'Konrad Hinsen' Cc: numpy-discussion@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: RE: [Numpy-discussion] RE: default axis for numarray
<Eric Jones writes>: <Konrad Hinsen writes>:
What needs to be improved in that area?
Comparisons of complex numbers. But lets save that debate for later.
No, no, let's do it now. ;-) We for one would like to know for numarray what should be done.
If I might be presumptious enough to anticipate what Eric would say, it is that complex comparisons should be allowed, and that they use all the information in the complex number (real and imaginary) so that they lead to consistent results in sorting.
But the purist argues that comparisons for complex numbers are meaningless. Well, yes, but there are cases in code where you don't which such comparisons to cause an exception. But even more important, there is at least one case which is practical. It isn't all that uncommon to want to eliminate duplicate values from arrays, and one would like to be able to do that for complex values as well. A common technique is to sort the values and then eliminate all identical adjacent values. A predictable comparison rule would allow that to be easily implemented.
Eric, am I missing anything in this? It should be obvious that we agree with his position, but I am wondering if there are any arguments we have not heard yet that outweigh the advantages we see.
Perry
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