[PYTHON MATRIX-SIG] printing arrays

[Paul. Dubois]

Here is my take on this:

>From a purely object-oriented point of view, the width/precision are
attributes of the *array formatter*, ie an object that knows how to
print arrays. At the moment, this gets confounded with the array itself.
The default formatter object could be a class variable (i.e., when an
array is created, it has as its default formatter a single shared
formatter). This means that changing the precision in the shared
formatter would change it across the board.

The discussion has really arisen because array isn't really a class and
the "object" that does the printing in it is a function that doesn't
have any state, so we've started to talk about where to put that state.

In general, while I appreciate Jim Fulton's concern about
compartmentalizing things, I think in practice the idea of a
user-changeable default printing precision is well established in
similar products. "How do I increase the number of decimals" is
certainly a FAQ for Basis users. They don't ask, "How do I increase the
number of decimals for printing THIS array only."
-- 
Paul F. Dubois, L-472				(510)-422-5426
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory		FAX (510)-423-9969
Livermore, CA 94550				dubois1@llnl.gov
Consulting: PaulDubois@aol.com

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