[Numpy-discussion] Release of NumPy

[Stéfan van der Walt]

Hi Joris

On 17/04/2008, Joris De Ridder <Joris.DeRidder@ster.kuleuven.be> wrote:
> The patch introduces "Vector", but I assume it's your intend to change
> this into "RowVector" or "ColumnVector" in the end, correct?

This was just of a proof of concept.  It depends very much on what you
guys want.

Vector currently remains 2-dimensional, but allows scalar indexing,
i.e. my_vector[0] returns the zero'th element.  The other option is to
make Vectors 1-dimensional, and to introduce both RowVector and
ColumnVector.  That's easy enough to do -- a person just needs to take
care when it comes to multiplication.

> With
>  "Vector" I expect tons of emails of (newbie) people confused whether
>  and when they should use array and when Vector.

I'd think you should stick to either using
(Matrix,ColumnVector,RowVector) or using the full ndarray capability.

> Especially when they
>  come from a language where "vector" is used for what we call an array.

But they also come from languages where the word "matrix" is used to
describe what we call an nd-array, so that's neither here nor there.

Regards
Stéfan