Peter Haworth wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 5:35 PM, Alex Tweedly wrote:
>
>> But you get them (I think) just with "add", etc.
>
> Yes, thanks Alex, I missed that. It seems that multiply also works
> that way so I guess the matrixMultiply command must be like the
> transpose command - works on the old style arrays only. I wonder
> why they don't mark those commands a deprecated?
Because they still work and are supported for the foreseeable future.
It may be convenient to extend the behavior of matrixMultiply to wok on
multidimensional arrays, but given that the current behavior is in use
it would be wise to continue supporting it.
Matrices are not necessarily arrays; the reason there's a matrixMultiply
but not matrixAdd, matrixSubtract, etc. is because matrix multiplication
is commonly used as part of a larger sequence of analytics operations
across a data set, not just as a convenience for doing arithmetic on
individual values that just happen to be grouped together in a single
variable.
Many years ago nearly Jeanne Devoto exhausted herself trying to explain
to my math-challenged self why matrixMultiply was useful while other
seemingly-similar arithmetic operations much less so, but ultimately
gave up and merely pointed me to this Wikipedia page - it offers a much
better explanation of how matrix multiplication is used than I could offer:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_multiplication>
In short, if someone wants to submit an enhancement request for either
matrixMultiply to work on multiple dimensions when present, or an
arrayMultiply if that's what's being sought, that could be very useful
as long as any such extensions to the language continue to support
existing code relying on current behavior.
--
Richard Gaskin
Fourth World Systems
Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
____________________________________________________________________
ambassa...@fourthworld.com http://www.FourthWorld.com
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