[Numpy-discussion] numpy release

[Christopher Barker]

Alan G Isaac wrote:
> On Thu, 24 Apr 2008, Christopher Barker apparently wrote:
>> I suppose a "Vector" can be either a (n,1) or a (1,n) 
>> matrix that allows single indexing. 
> 
> This bothers me.
> 
> So, if X is 2 by 2, then X[0] will be a row vector.
> But if X is 1 by 2, then X[0] will be a scalar?
> Ouch!
> Bye bye generic code.

exactly one of the things that really bugged me with MATLAB!

> Or are you still having separate classes and
> not just changing ``__getitem__``?  OK, I see
> that is most likely what you meant.

yes, it would still be a vector class, so a 1 by 2 matrix (or array) 
would still act like a 2-d object.

The only issue here is if you need a separate "row vector" and "column 
vector" class -- I think it's a matter of what whether these vectors are 
special versions of 1-d arrays or 2-d matrices. I kind of like them as 
special versions of 1-d arrays, as a vector is a 1-d object, but I see 
that the implementation is a bit cleaner if you just make them 2-d 
matrices with a different scalar indexing.

-Chris


-- 
Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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