[PYTHON MATRIX-SIG] Release 0.20 of matrix object is available

[Hinsen Konrad]

   It will be difficult to maintain a natural connection between
   hierarchical index using [][] versus multi-dimensional indexing.  For
   example:

   m[0:4,1] != m[0:4][1]

I agree, and we shouldn't insist on this as a feature. It might even
be better (in terms of error checking) to forbid an index that doesn't
cover all dimensions. Right now, a[0] is just a shorthand for
a[0, RubberIndex], and I don't think this shorthand is necessary.

   Perhaps a naming scheme similar to FORTRAN's INTEGER*8, REAL*4 REAL*8.
   The advantage of this is that the precision is known.  With ANSI C the
   precision of floats and doubles is not specified.  ANSI C only
   enforces a minimum precision on an implementation.

And since Python is written in C, we can't promise anything more.
Besides, giving a single number still doesn't specify the precision
of a floating point number. The memory space could be distributed
differently between mantissa and exponent.

My major concern is that array names correspond with the standard
Python number type names as far as possible. Anything else just
generates confusion.

   operator that take 2D arrays as arguments.  But it was pointed out
   that we can not use "array" as it is already a different module in

As I pointed out before, it is only the module name which may not
be "array". Even "Array" is OK.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Konrad Hinsen                     | E-Mail: hinsenk@ere.umontreal.ca
Departement de chimie             | Tel.: +1-514-343-6111 ext. 3953
Universite de Montreal            | Fax:  +1-514-343-7586
C.P. 6128, succ. Centre-Ville     | Deutsch/Esperanto/English/Nederlands/
Montreal (QC) H3C 3J7             | Francais (phase experimentale)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

=================
MATRIX-SIG  - SIG on Matrix Math for Python

send messages to: matrix-sig@python.org
administrivia to: matrix-sig-request@python.org
=================