On Mar 29, 11:01 am, Steven D'Aprano <[EMAIL PROTECTED] cybersource.com.au> wrote: > On Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:11:28 +0100, Roel Schroeven wrote: > > Steven D'Aprano schreef: > >> On Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:59:59 +0100, Robert Bossy wrote: > > >>> Gabriel Genellina wrote: > >>>> That's what I said in another paragraph. "sum of coordinates" is > >>>> using a different distance definition; it's the way you measure > >>>> distance in a city with square blocks. I don't know if the distance > >>>> itself has a name, but > >>> I think it is called Manhattan distance in reference of the walking > >>> distance from one point to another in this city. > > >> You know, there are other cities than Manhattan. Some of them even have > >> streets and blocks. > > > I'm not sure what your point is. The name > > "The" name? You go on to list four additional names, so why do you say > that "Manhattan distance" is THE name? When I studied this at university, > we called it the taxi metric. > > > of the distance happens to be > > Manhattan distance (or taxicab distance, rectilinear distance, L1 > > distance, city block distance; see > >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_distance) so Robert has a valid > > point. > > Wikipedia doesn't believe that M-D is the primary or most common name, > and the link you give redirects to "Taxicab distance". Googlefight > agrees: "Taxicab distance" is more than twice as common, and "rectilinear > distance" more than five times as common. > > My point was to draw attention to Robert's unconscious assumptions which > are reflected in his choice of language. Rectilinear distance applies to > more than "distance from one point to another in THIS city" (emphasis > added). > > It applies in parts of Rome, Sydney, London, Moscow and many other > places. It even applies to sleepy little country towns like Bendigo and > Mildura here in Australia. Manhattan is hardly the only place where > cities are carved up into rectangular or square city blocks, and I doubt [...]
a metric by any other name... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/2595215.stm -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list