Matlab vs Python (was RE: Discussion: Introducing new operators f

[gmcm at hypernet.com.bbs]

Huaiyu Zhu wrote:

>On 17 Jul 2000 23:19:16 GMT, Gordon McMillan <gmcm at hypernet.com> wrote:

>>  PyAlgebra.evaluate(r'(A .* B)\C', A=A, B=B, C=C)

>Good point. So let me say why I do not like this.  (Doesn't mean it has
>to die.)  :-)
>
>In a program where there are a lot of computations, you'll get either
>something like a ritual on every line,
>
>PyAlgebra.evaluate(r'(A .* B)\C', A=A, B=B, C=C)
>PyAlgebra.evaluate(r'(A .* B)\C', A=A, B=B, C=C)
>PyAlgebra.evaluate(r'(A .* B)\C', A=A, B=B, C=C)

[snip]

>or you get
>
>PyAlgebra.evaluate(r'(A .* B)\C
>                     (A .* B)\C
>                     (A .* B)\C', A=A, B=B, C=C)
>
>Everybody would rush for the latter.  In the end what's inside the quote
>would be a minilanguage with all the bells and wistles of python.  This
>would be just similar to patching the parser, with lesser results.

It would be exactly what SQL and regular expression users deal with every
day. I'm sure some ex-Perlers wish that regexes were "first class" objects,
but there's little noise about it; and none whatsoever from SQL users.

And you get the advantage that you can use the same syntax Matlab uses.

-Gordon