[Numpy-discussion] deprecate numpy.matrix

[Matthew Brett]

Hi,

On Mon, Feb 10, 2014 at 12:23 PM, Alan G Isaac <alan.isaac at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2/10/2014 3:04 PM, Matthew Brett wrote:
>> I teach psychologists and neuroscientists mainly
>
> I must suspect that notebook was not for
> **undergraduate** psychology students.
> At least, not the ones I usually meet.

Well - in this case a mix.  The class was this one:

practical-neuroimaging.github.com

I realize I'm not sure what you are teaching that is less complicated
than the notebook, but nevertheless has a reasonable amount of stuff
like X * (X.T * X).I * X.T ?  Have you got any teaching materials to
hand that would help us understand what you mean?

> SymPy is great but for those without background
> it is at best awkward.  It certainly does not
> offer an equivalent to the notational convenience
> of numpy's matrix object.
>
>
> As far as I have been able to discern, the underlying
> motivation for eliminating the matrix class is that
> some developers want to stop supporting in any form
> the subclassing of numpy arrays.  Do I have that right?

No I don't think so, and I believe that line would be distracting.

The question as I understand it, is very directly about whether the
benefit of the notational convenience of np.matrix might be outweighed
by the later cost of switching to np.array, and the confusion that
comes up when a new user has to choose between them.  But - I guess
this will be stuff that has to go into the NEP.

Cheers,

Matthew