Re: New variable type: matrix

Hi Baris,

I agree with your sentiments. Most people in PDL DO come from the
number crunching/scientific background.

I would say that a matrix is just a special case of a general
N-dimensional compact array which obeys various rules. PDL
supplies a matrix-mult operator ("x") and other matrix ops.
Note it is useful to have BOTH "x" and "*".

Our goal is to get true multi-dim arrays like PDL, as you say,
into the core. Then one would have matrices too.

What the prefix should be is of course as interesting question,
currently PDL uses $, @ could be used if overloading became possible.
Is there a real case for a special prefix?

Karl

Baris Sumengen wrote:
> 
> I am little bit confused and probably very ignorant but one thing seems to
> me very useful. Why doesn't perl support a new data type matrix. If perl
> wants to become a real "programming language" not just a scripting language
> it should support number crunching internally in a more intuitive way. I
> don't know if this is suggested before but until now the messages I read
> mentioned only making perl arrays consistant with pdl arrays.
etc.