From: MonkeeSage <MonkeeSage@...>
Date: 2006-09-13T10:50:42+09:00
Subject: Re: Matrix

Just Another Victim of the Ambient Morality wrote:
>     Okay, I think I'm beginning to see the distinction you're trying to
> make between something "as a value" and "as a data structure."  If I
> understand you correctly, describing something as being "immutable" "as a
> value" is meaningless.  The term "immutable" only has meaning when you
> apply it to an object (what you call a data structure).

Ok, I was being ambiguous. I'm dumb though, so don't blame me. ;) I was
using "immutable" in the sense of mathematical identity (like numbers
and constants are immutable, but variables aren't) -- r1 can never _be_
r2, just like 1 can never be 2. By "as a value" I was meaning any
particular matrix considered in this mathematical sense of identity.
And by "as a data structure" I was meaning the implementation of a
matrix "container" in ruby (apart from any specific matrices). So the
"value" of the "data structure" r is mathematically "immutable"; but
the "data structure" itself need not be immutable (in the programming
language sense of object mutability). Anyhow, as I said, I'm dense;
sorry for not being more clear. I shouldn't have eaten all that glue as
a child. :) 

Regards,
Jordan