On 16 March 2014 06:50, Alexander Belopolsky <alexander.belopolsky@gmail.com> wrote:
Abstractly, 1-dimensional arrays are neither columns nor rows, but Python's horizontal notation makes them more row-like than column-like. In 2-dimensional case, [[1,2]] is a row-vector and [[1],[2]] is a column-vector. Which one is more "natural"?
Folks, please stop trying to argue this one in the abstract. The decision will likely be made primarily based on the feedback of folks that have *actually been using and teaching* Python as a tool for matrix manipulation (etc) for more than a decade. Guido has asked them to have that discussion and summarise their conclusions in the PEP - we can lob our armchair opinions into the mix after the experts have spoken. This won't be the first time features have been added to the language core specifically for the benefit of the numeric community - the ellipsis notation and extended slicing in general were added for their benefit years ago (I started getting involved in Python core development around Python 2.3, just as the core sequence types were being updated to support extended slicing, and being able to use "s[::-1]" with lists, strings, etc was a novel concept). Regards, Nick. -- Nick Coghlan | ncoghlan@gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia