Re: [boost] Boost.Numeric: multi_array spec/docs

From: Toon Knapen (toon_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-04-01 06:20:42

> 
> I'm not sure that making a distinction between slices and subarrays is
> beneficial. For example, the operator[] can end up returning a slice *or*
> a subarray depending on the arguments... I think it would be easier to
> refer to both as just subarrays.
Isn't that confusing. And mathematically there's a hugh difference
between operations where the result has the same dimension or
a lower dimension. Why would we make they be identical then
in C++ syntax ?

> 
> You're right, some definitions are needed.
> 
> toon> Why is the index signed ? There were arguments about fortran or
> toon> C-style but I would expect the sign-type to be generall size_t
> 
> The multi-array currently allows for arbitrary index-ranges, [-10,-5)
> would be ok, and indices into this range would need to be signed.

I was just wondering if anyone really needs negative indices. If not,
indices get often compared to e.g. the size of a vector which is
size_t and thus generates a warning comparing signed and unsigned
integers. 

t