[Matrix-SIG] Numeric arrays / assertions / truth testing

[David Ascher]

On Mon, 6 Apr 1998, Bruce Duncan wrote:
> Is it documented how Numeric treats assertions, e.g.,
> 
> assert myarray
> 
> The behavior, although consistent, is somewhat counter-intuitive:
> Numeric checks for identity to zero.   I suggest an exposition of
> this in the next round of documentation.

Actually, one consequence of my proposal on comparison is that rich arrays
should not be truth-testable (and should raise exceptions), if one uses
the most basic plan of returning arrays on comparisons.  There are other,
more complex possibilities.  

Does anyone currently rely on the truth of an array corresponding to it
having one or more non-zero elements?

--david