[SciPy-dev] [SciPy-user] scipy.linalg.eig() returns transposed eigenvector matrix

[Robert Dick]

Fernando Perez wrote:
>Travis Oliphant wrote:
>>Pearu Peterson wrote:
>>>This is a matter of definition. scipy.linalg.eig and 
>>>scipy.basic.linalg.eig return correct results according to their 
>>>documentation. Just scipy.linalg.eig assumes that eigenvectors are 
>>>returned column-wise, i.e.

>>Thanks for the clarification, Pearu.  I'm glad things are actually 
>>working as advertised.

>If I may suggest, I think these two should be unified, though.  It will be 
>seriously disconcerting for new users to find that

> If the two are to be unified, I think scipy.basic should change.  But, 
> that leads to a problem because of compatibility with Numeric. 
>
> So, what to do?
>
> We could change scipy.basic.linalg.eig  and keep 
> scipy.basic.linalg.eigenvectors as the old Numeric behavior.

If you need to decide which one to change, identify the common case.  Is it 
more common to access all dimensions of one eigenvector or access one 
dimension of many eigenvectors?  The common case should be the easiest to 
express, i.e., if one wants the first eigenvector, should
  la.eig(m)[1][0]
or
  la.eig(m)[1][:, 0]
be used?

The first convention (Numeric-style) maintains compatibility with Numeric and 
conforms with the documentation in "Guide to SciPy: Core System":
  The second element of the return tuple contains the eigenvectors in the
  rows (x[i] is the ith eigenvector).
The second convention (current scipy.eig) is more MATLAB-like.

Other comments:

It might be good to change "Building New SciPy" to "Building SciPy" and change 
"Building SciPy" to "Building Old Versions of SciPy" at 
  http://www.scipy.org/documentation/
When I decided to try SciPy I read the first, and apparently default, 
document.  It indicates that Numeric is necessary for SciPy.  As a 
consqeuence, I wasted a lot of time rewriting significant portions of 
Numeric in order to get it to build with ACML.  Only after later getting SciPy 
from svn did I realize that Numeric is no longer required.

The downloads page might best direct folks to the svn repository.  Svn is easy 
but, when trying a new package, I generally go with tarball releases under the 
assumption that they are more stable.  However, scipy's tarball is a year 
old.  I would have gone straight to svn if the page suggested it and that 
would have resulted in a better first impression of SciPy.

In case this sounds too negative, I should state that SciPy has great 
potential and I intend to keep using it and sending bug reports (or checking 
in, after establishing history).

Best Regards,

-Robert Dick-