[Numpy-discussion] It looks like Py 3.5 will include a dedicated infix matrix multiply operator

[Nathaniel Smith]

On Sat, Mar 15, 2014 at 3:18 AM, Chris Laumann <chris.laumann at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> That’s great.
>
> Does this mean that, in the not-so-distant future, the matrix class will go the way of the dodos? I have had more subtle to fix bugs sneak into code b/c something returns a matrix instead of an array than almost any other single source I can think of. Having two almost indistinguishable types for 2d arrays with slightly different semantics for a small subset of operations is terrible.

Well, it depends on what your definition of "distant" is :-). Py 3.5
won't be out for some time (3.*4* is coming out this week). And we'll
still need to sit down and figure out if there's any bits of matrix we
want to save (e.g., maybe create an ndarray version of the parser used
for np.matrix("1 2; 3 4")), come up with a transition plan, have a
long mailing list argument about it, etc. But the goal (IMO) is
definitely to get rid of np.matrix as soon as reasonable given these
considerations, and similarly to find a way to switch scipy.sparse
matrices to a more ndarray-like API. So it'll be a few years at least,
but I think we'll get there.

-n

-- 
Nathaniel J. Smith
Postdoctoral researcher - Informatics - University of Edinburgh
http://vorpus.org