[PYTHON MATRIX-SIG] Some notes on the matrix class

[James Hugunin]

> Couldn't this be done by implementing a "numeric" type (at the C
> level) that has a range of [0..1]?  It could have two objects...
>
> Also, what exactly is the advantage of having a Boolean type?  (Am I
> showing my age here? :-)

What I'm asking for is to be able to create a new python object in C, and  
to include boolean methods for that object.  So, just like I can implement  
my matrix_add function for the syntax "a+b" when a and b are matrices  
(modulo coercion), I'd really like to be able to implement a matrix_greater  
function for the syntax "a>b" when a and b are matrices (still modulo  
coercion).  This seems completely in the original spirit of the language.

The reason for this is that if a = [1,2,3], and b = [2,2,2], I'd like to  
define a>b = [0,0,1].  (where all of the above are matrices).  This is  
useful in an astounding range of matrix computations, and there is no  
sensible definition of a>b for matrices that returns a scalar boolean value.  


ie. the traditional discrete delta function is elegantly expressed as
def delta(i): return i==0

delta([-2,-1,0,1,2,3,4]) -> [0,0,1,0,0,0,0]

It's also useful for "vectorizing" traditional operations like filter.  If  
x is a vector,

filter(lambda x: x<2 and x>0, x) <--> x.filter(x<2 and x>0)

except the second is orders of magnitude faster for matrices.

I understand that this is a major change to some of the more complicated  
parts of python, so there are good practical reasons that it won't be done  
anytime soon.  Nevertheless, I would love though to have you agree that this  
would be a good feature if somebody ever has the time to add it.

-Jim

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