On Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 11:41 PM, Nathaniel Smith <n...@pobox.com> wrote:
> Here's the main blocker for adding a matrix multiply operator '@' to > Python: we need to decide what we think its precedence and associativity > should be. I am not ready to form my own opinion, but I hope the following will help shaping the discussion. Currently, [1], Python operator precedence is +, -Addition and subtraction*, /, //, %Multiplication, division, remainder [5] <http://docs.python.org/3/reference/expressions.html#id20>+x, -x, ~xPositive, negative, bitwise NOT**Exponentiation [6]<http://docs.python.org/3/reference/expressions.html#id21> x[index], x[index:index], x(arguments...), x.attributeSubscription, slicing, call, attribute reference We need to decide whether @ belongs to one of the existing row or deserves one of its own. The associativity debate is one of those debates [2] where there is no right answer. Guido has very wisely left it for the numeric community to decide. I would start with surveying the prior art of using right associativity and the reasons it was chosen and see if those reasons apply. (An example of a choice made for wrong reasons is our decimal system. We write our numbers backwards - from high to low place value - only because we took them from people who write text from right to left. As a result, computer parsers have to skip to the last or count the number of digits before they can start evaluating the number.) Here is the start: 1. APL uses right to left associativity for all operators and all operators have the same precedence. 2. Exponentiation operator is right associative in most languages with MATLAB being a notable exception. [1] http://docs.python.org/3/reference/expressions.html#evaluation-order [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilliput_and_Blefuscu [3] http://www.tcl.tk/cgi-bin/tct/tip/274.html
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