From 274416586010001789 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f78e5,d6b00896947ca26f X-Google-Attributes: gidf78e5,public X-Google-Thread: fc772,d6b00896947ca26f X-Google-Attributes: gidfc772,public From: Oleg Zabluda Subject: Re: matrix based on Date: 1997/05/16 Message-ID: <5lgu87$d15@netlab.cs.rpi.edu>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 242719992 Sender: cppmods@netlab.cs.rpi.edu References: <5lc577$57i@netlab.cs.rpi.edu> X-Original-Date: 16 May 1997 06:09:27 GMT Organization: Penn State University, Center for Academic Computing Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++.moderated,comp.std.c++ Brian Parker wrote: : Valarray has certainly been around long enough to prove its worth, at : least experimentally. : I haven't found it to be a useful building block for matrix classes, : but hopefully there are examples of its successful use. : If not, then I think the committee should seriously consider removing : it from the standard, until more experience with it is obtained. If it : is a part of the final standard and is found to be less than useful in : practice then it will be difficult to remove it at a later standard : revision, IMO. I think I've posted this though already, but let me rehash it again. Valarray was not supposed IMHO to be a building block for vector/matrix classes. It was probably just an attempt to provide an abstraction for vector/parallel computer architectures. C gained such an incredible popularity IMHO solely because it provided good implementation of the just right "hardware platform" abstraction. I think it's extremely important that C++ continues developing this trend. Whether valarray is a correct implementation of the correct abstraction, I don't really know. Seems to be so, but unless I or the C++ community have more experience with it, it's hard for me to tell. Maybe it's a correct abstraction of a single parallel/vector CPU, but the wrong abstraction of the multiple symmetric or massively parallel "hardware platform". Who knows. If it is not, I think that DRASTIC measures have to be taken IMMEDIATELY. And finally: everything above are my guesses, based on nothing. Oleg. -- Life is a sexually transmitted, 100% lethal disease. [ Send an empty e-mail to c++-help@netlab.cs.rpi.edu for info ] [ about comp.lang.c++.moderated. First time posters: do this! ]