[Numpy-discussion] comparison style

[Warren F. <focke@SLAC.Stanford.EDU>]

Howdy all,

We've got these spiffy comparisons now (thanks Travis et al.!):

] >>> 2 <= arange(8)
] array([0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1])

but, as noted in the rich comparison PEP, they don't chain:

] >>> 2 <= arange(8) < 6
] array([1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0])

since

x <= y < z

is equivalent to

x <= y and y < z

and we don't get to overload "and" :-(.  But we did overload "&" long ago,
and bitwise_and is equivalent to logical_and if the arguments are only 1
or 0, which is what our comparisons return (I think?).  So

(x <= y) & (y < z)

seems like it might be a semi-reasonable substitute, and is shorter and
appeals more to my preferring-operators-over-functions eyes, than

Numeric.logical_and(x <= y, y < z)

(which still beats the ^%$#&^(*&*^ out of

Numeric.logical_and(Numeric.less_equal(x, y), Numeric.less(y, z))

).  But I'm a bit squeamish about it.  Cons that I see are:

- Do our comparisons really and truly ALWAYS return 1 or 0, even with Infs
and Nans and whatnot?

- It's potentially misleading for readers of the code.

- It just seems kinda wrong, even if it does look better.

So, what think you?

bitwise, bytefoolish-ly y'rs,
Warren Focke