I think switching the sort order would probably break a fair amount of code, and it wouldn't necessarily be obvious that it had been broken. For example, I suspect that there is a fair amount of code that tests if all eigenvalues are positive by just looking at the last one.
Anyway, consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds. Patrick Burns Burns Statistics [EMAIL PROTECTED] +44 (0)20 8525 0696 http://www.burns-stat.com (home of S Poetry and "A Guide for the Unwilling S User") Peter Dalgaard wrote: >Prof Brian Ripley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > >>That is not a symmetric matrix so the eigenvalues are potentially complex >>and are sorted by modulus. There's an ambiguity in the description for >>that case. >> >> > >Ah-ha! Thanks, Brian. > >I wonder if we should switch to sorting by absolute value in the real >case too, for consistency, and maybe also to avoid silly mistakes >caused by people expecting that the first/last eigenvalues are the >important ones. > > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list https://www.stat.math.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
