[Python-ideas] [Python-Dev] matrix operations on dict :)

Mark Janssen dreamingforward at gmail.com
Fri Feb 10 17:56:02 CET 2012


On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 8:38 AM, Jim Jewett <jimjjewett at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 7:11 PM, Mark Janssen <dreamingforward at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 9:54 AM, julien tayon <julien at tayon.net> wrote:
> >>
> >> 2012/2/7 Mark Janssen <dreamingforward at gmail.com>:
> >> > On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 6:12 PM, Steven
> >> > D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info> wrote:
>
> >> > I have the problem looking for this solution!
>
> >> > The application for this functionality is in coding a fractal graph
> (or
> >> > "multigraph" in the literature).
>
> I think that would be better represented using an object of some sort,
> such as a MultiGraphNode and/or MultiGraphEdge, instead of
> re-purposing dict.
>

Those would be good strategies in general, but the issue is how things hook
together in the object model.  These things are very abstract, it's exactly
the thing which had made metaclasses difficult to "grok" at times.  I'll
probably just have to try to implement them in Pypy or abandon the idea.


>
> > Okay, I guess I did not make myself very clear.  What I'm proposing
> probably
> > will (eventually) require changes to the "object" model of Python
>
> That means you're talking about Python 4, at a minimum, and you would
> need to show how valuable it is by building a workaround version and
> getting people to use that extensively in Python 3.
>
> I understand what you're saying but I among many of us Python3000 never
really happened.  So this is really still for what was dreamed to happen in
version 3.

>
> > While in the abstract one might think to allow any arbitrary data-type
> for
> > right-hand-side values, in PRACTICE, integers are sufficient.
>
> By integers, do you really mean pointers or (possibly abstract)
> references to other structures?  Because if you do, then ordinary
> arithmetic isn't the right solution, but if you don't, then I don't
> see them as sufficient.
>
> No actually python integers.  My point is that within this unified
information model, everything can be represented by atomic units (where
integers come in) and groups (or a collection type).  Compre with how all
the complexity of the physical world is a product of small-massed electrons
and protons.  I'm arguing that all the uses of data can be represented in a
similar way.

Thanks for the reply, but I think I'll shelve the discussion for now....

mark
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