[SciPy-dev] Generic polynomials class (was Re: Volunteer for Scipy Project)

[Anne Archibald]

2009/10/13 Charles R Harris <charlesr.harris at gmail.com>:
> I've broken up the Chebyshev file into a class part and a function part and
> attached to show how this works. The file names are provisional.

I see what you were getting at now, about using a function to
manufacture classes, but I'm not convinced it's a good idea.

For example, how would a scipy user produce a polynomial object with
some extra operations (a fast convex hull, perhaps, for polynomials in
the Bernstein basis)? Wouldn't they have to reimplement polyclass,
cutting and pasting most of the code?

What about polynomials for which "interval" is not the right extra
data to specify? This is the case for both Lagrange polynomials
(either an interval, a list of points, or both) and power basis
polynomials (where a center point is the relevant information).

There also doesn't seem to be any place for extra information about
the polynomial's basis (orthogonal roots and weights, Lagrange
interpolation weights and derivative matrices) to be stored.


Anne