On 3/25/07, Bill Baxter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On 3/26/07, Steven H. Rogers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Joe Harrington wrote: > > > > On the other hand, Python, IDL, and Matlab are attractive to us mainly > > because their syntaxes allow us to see the math, understand it on > > inspection, and verify its correctness. The math we write in these > > languages looks as much like the math we do on paper as ASCII will > > allow. (Obviously, we also choose them because we don't like writing > > loops and declaring variables.) > > > > So, whenever I hear someone suggest using a functional syntax for a > > concept that exists notationally, I cringe. We're alienating a class > > of users each time we do that. Those are people who will never come > > to Python. There are extremes to which this argument cannot go - a > > prime will never be a derivative because quotes are more important - > > but I think that matrix multiplication is a no-brainer here. We > > should let the Python developers know we want it now and then follow > > up with a syntax and implementation. > > > > > > Sun's Fortress programming language > (http://research.sun.com/projects/plrg/faq/index.html) will include > Unicode operators and two dimensional equations. Something like this > should be possible for NumPy. The question is how much can and should > be pushed into the Python core language. Until we get to the point that it's actually harder to find a non-Unicode console/editor than a Unicode one, I think the idea of using Unicode symbols as part of the syntax of a general purpose language is a bad one. I'm looking forward to see what becomes of Fortress, but it's basically still an experiment at this point.
What might work better is simply some sort of sign that causes a function to be parsed as infix, x @dot y for instance, although Python already uses @ for other things. I don't know what symbols are left unused at this point, maybe ! , $, and ~. Chuck
_______________________________________________ Numpy-discussion mailing list Numpy-discussion@scipy.org http://projects.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion
