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

[Mark Janssen]

More messages I didn't realize weren't being sent to the group....[mark]
On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 7:13 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen at xemacs.org>wrote:

> Mark Janssen writes:
>
>  > The math (in my world) simply decided that factorial(0)=1 as the
>  > convention of "an empty product" (Wikipedia::Factorial).
>
> In modern math (ie, post-Eilenberg-Mac Lane), it's not really a
> convention (unlike, say, Euclid's Parallel Postulate); it's the only
> way to go if you want the idea of product to generalize.  If you don't
> understand that, I have serious doubts that you know what you're
> talking about.  If you do understand that, please take care to be more
> precise.
>

Awesome.  I didn't know anyone else really understood this kind of issue.

Yes, I want the idea to generalize.  In this case, not of "product" and
arithmetic (in a mathematical space), but of "object model" and the notion
of "grouping" (in a set-theoretical space).  So a formalization must be
made, and perhaps this arena will be the place to do that.

I have to say that I'm approaching this from in the domain of computer
science, so in some ways creating a definition in a new "space", or at
least a space separate from the Platonian "Abstract" of mathematics.

Love it!  cheers!

Mark
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