[Matrix-SIG] Zeros

hinsen@dirac.cnrs-orleans.fr hinsen@dirac.cnrs-orleans.fr
Tue, 1 Feb 2000 18:03:16 +0100


> I would like to see even more support for non-numeric types, for the
> following reason: I could use the same NumPy code to approach problems
> from either a symbolic and a numerical approach.  E.g. I would like to
> create a symbolic "Polynomial" class, populate a matrix with these
> objects, then call some Numeric functions to perform symbolic algebra.

Me too. In fact, I have done precisely this (there's a Polynomial
class in ScientificPython), and fortunately I did not run into any
NumPy bug with object arrays in my rather small application. In
another application I used object arrays with automatic
differentiation (i.e. arrays containing the DerivVar objects defined
in ScientificPython). And I could well imagine uses for arrays of
rational numbers (available in a module called yarn from somewhere).

I suspect that many uses for object arrays would appear once people
consider them safe to use for real life.

Konrad.
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