[PYTHON MATRIX-SIG] Re: Conversion
Konrad Hinsen
hinsen@ibs.ibs.fr
Wed, 2 Apr 1997 10:45:03 +0200
> You will find that there are some mathematicians who permit the use of
> 'j' in service courses for engineers, who have even put it in texts for
> such courses. I am not aware of a single instance outside of this sort
> where 'j' is used.
In many books on electrical engineering. And in some other programming
languages (APL2, J).
> And it matters. When you teach students to use 'j' for 'i', and use
> 'log' for logarithms in heretical bases (e.g. 2, 10), you are erecting a
> sequence of progressive barriers between them and the high-class
> literature. Worse yet, in the case at hand, you are choosing the
No more than by writing 2.5e6 instead of
6
2.5 x 10
And the only way to be completely compatible with standard mathematical
notation would be to make 'i' a built-in variable. Which is in fact
not far from what I would recommend to those who see a problem with
the notation: write "i = 1j" at the beginning, and be happy. But
don't use i as a loop counter afterwards...
--
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Konrad Hinsen | E-Mail: hinsen@ibs.ibs.fr
Laboratoire de Dynamique Moleculaire | Tel.: +33-4.76.88.99.28
Institut de Biologie Structurale | Fax: +33-4.76.88.54.94
41, av. des Martyrs | Deutsch/Esperanto/English/
38027 Grenoble Cedex 1, France | Nederlands/Francais
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