From: "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <znmeb@...>
Date: 2006-06-20T11:25:23+09:00
Subject: Re: Numeric roadmap?

stuart yarus wrote:
>> Why not do what R did --- define "scalars" as vectors of length 1 and
>> make the vector the basic numeric type?
>> >
>
> Then you have a conformability problem.  How do you multiply a vector
> times a scalar?  If a scalar is represented by a vector of length one,
> "doubling" a vector of length greater than one won't work or will
> require special code.
Ah, but R, like S, uses something called the recycling rule. Vector A of
length N times vector B of length M is defined by recycling the shorter
vector from the end back to the beginning. So [3 4 5] * [3] is [9 12
15], [2 3] + [7 8 9] is [9 11 11], etc.

-- 
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky

http://linuxcapacityplanning.com