Sasha wrote: > On 8/25/06, Charles R Harris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> Matrix rank has nothing to do with numpy rank. Numpy rank is simply the >> number of indices required to address an element of an ndarray. I always >> thought a better name for the Numpy rank would be dimensionality, but like >> everything else one gets used to the numpy jargon, it only needs to be >> defined someplace for what it is. > > That's my point exactly. The rank(2) definition was added by > Sebastian Haase who advocates the use of the term "ndims" instead of > "rank". I've discussed the use of "dimentionality' in the preamble. > Note that ndims stands for the number of dimensions, not > dimensionality. > > I don't want to remove rank(2) without hearing from Sebastian first > and I appreciate his effort to improve the glossary. Maybe we shold > add a "matrix rank" entry instead.
My phasing is certainly suboptimal (I only remember the German wording - and even that only faintly - "linear independent" !?) But I put it in, remembering the discussion in "numpy" on *why* array.rank (numarray) was changed to array.ndim (numpy) I just thought this page might be a good place to 'discourage usage of badly-defined terms' or at least give the argument for "ndim". [ OK: it's not "badly" defined: but there are two separate camps on *what* it should mean --- ndim is clear.] BTW: Does the "matrix" class have m.rank attribute !? Cheers, Sebastian. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job easier Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 _______________________________________________ Numpy-discussion mailing list Numpy-discussion@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/numpy-discussion
