• Paul D. Anderson <paul.d.removethis.anderson comcast.andthis.net> Apr 16 2009

Paul D. Anderson <paul.d.removethis.anderson comcast.andthis.net> writes:

Lars Kyllingstad Wrote:

 I am writing a D library based some of the stuff in SLATEC, and I've 
 come to a point where I need to decide on a way to manipulate vectors 
 and matrices. To that end, I have some ideas and questions I would like 
 comments on from the community.
 
 My first question goes to those among you who do a lot of linear algebra 
 in D: Do you think supporting both library  types and arrays is worth 
 the trouble? Or should I just go with one and be done with it?
 
 
 A user-defined matrix type would have opIndex(i,j) defined, and to 
 retrieve elements one would write m[i,j]. However, the syntax for 
 two-dimensional arrays is m[i][j], and this means I have to put a lot of 
 static ifs around my code, in order to check the type every time I 
 access a matrix. This leads me to my second question, which is a 
 suggestion for a language change, so I expect a lot of resistance. :)
 
 Would it be problematic to define m[i,j,...] to be equivalent to 
 m[i][j][...] for built-in arrays, so that arrays and user-defined types 
 could be used interchangeably?
 
 (And, importantly, are there anyone but me who think they would benefit 
 from this?)
 
 
 -Lars


If your looking for votes you have mine. I'd like to see a consistent interface
for multidimensional rectangular arrays using the m[i,j,k,...] syntax. I know
we've got people, like yourself, to provide implementations.

Paul