[Numpy-discussion] untenable matrix behavior in SVN

[Christopher Barker]

Bruce Southey wrote:
> The ability to treat vectors as matrices would be sufficient for my
> needs because these are almost always used in the context of
> vector-matrix multiplication. There is no additional benefit from
> having row or column shapes or metadata because the row/column nature
> is usually predetermined and would be represented by the shape of the
> corresponding matrix.

The benefit is that they can be indexed with a scalar and converted to a 
1-d array with r.A, and no reshaping. Also that indexing a matrix 
reduces its rank, which is expected in a lot of places.

> It really would be annoying to find that for an
> n by 1 vector/matrix, the product of X.T*X is a scalar or an error
> rather than an n by n matrix.

yes, it would, which is the whole point of the matrix object in the 
first place, and the point of the proposed row/column objects. They 
would provide 1-d object that behave as row an column vectors with * and **.

-Chris


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Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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