From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Emanuel Berg Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: why are there [v e c t o r s] in Lisp? Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2015 23:37:23 +0200 Message-ID: <8737x9w50s.fsf@debian.uxu> References: <87oafzpqfj.fsf@debian.uxu> <87lhb2cjy5.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> <876126w0t8.fsf@debian.uxu> <871tctcyj3.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> <87si59bhe4.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1445117342 9066 80.91.229.3 (17 Oct 2015 21:29:02 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2015 21:29:02 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Oct 17 23:28:53 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1ZnZ23-0003Em-S2 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 17 Oct 2015 23:28:52 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:59818 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZnZ23-0006lg-3K for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 17 Oct 2015 17:28:51 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:43999) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZnZ1X-0006iq-EK for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 17 Oct 2015 17:28:20 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZnZ1U-0002re-8b for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 17 Oct 2015 17:28:19 -0400 Original-Received: from plane.gmane.org ([80.91.229.3]:45045) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZnZ1U-0002rT-2J for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 17 Oct 2015 17:28:16 -0400 Original-Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1ZnZ1S-0002cR-Hj for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 17 Oct 2015 23:28:14 +0200 Original-Received: from nl106-137-244.student.uu.se ([130.243.137.244]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sat, 17 Oct 2015 23:28:14 +0200 Original-Received: from embe8573 by nl106-137-244.student.uu.se with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sat, 17 Oct 2015 23:28:14 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Mail-Followup-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-Lines: 38 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: nl106-137-244.student.uu.se Mail-Copies-To: never User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.4 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:iO75FyM1bG6JGCQYiGjjBTlNkt4= X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 80.91.229.3 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:107725 Archived-At: "Pascal J. Bourguignon" writes: > Nobody but you is confusing arrays with matrices, > since they're not the same thing. > > vectors are arrays. matrices are arrays. > tensors are arrays. In the abstract sense, a list is a vector and a vector is a matrix and a matrix is an array. And an array, if 1-dimensional, is a list. In the math world there are vectors and matrices (and more :). In the programming world there are lists and arrays which can implement various math concepts including vectors and matrices. In many programming languages, 1-dimensional arrays are called arrays as well as multidimensional arrays. In Lisp, 1-dimensional arrays are called vectors. Because of this, one might think they are to be used specifically to do the vectors of linear algebra. But this isn't so. Conceptually everything is arrays, and everything is matrices - only to reduce confusion it makes sense to keep the terminology apart, with the exception of Lisp 1-dimenisonal arrays, which should be called vectors, because that is what that are called and that word is used when you use them in code. And they are vectors as well, so there is not harm calling them that. -- underground experts united http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573