Re: [PyX-devel] Great!

[Andre W. <wo...@us...>]

Hi,

On 29.07.04, Magnus Lie Hetland wrote:
> > I've just checked in another version, which gets rid of "==" and
> > becomes even nicer. What we'll need additionally is a "whatever"
> > used in front of a vector (or point, if its not a variable).
> 
> That would be nice, yes. But, in MetaPost, IIRC, 'whatever' is
> actually a completely normal variable -- it's just a new variable each
> time it's used. Isn't it? In that case you could just use var() (or
> whatever the constructor is) instead of whatever...
> 
> But I guess it's highly probable that I've missed some snag here.

I think, you are right (for MetaPost), but not for solve.py. In
MetaPost whatever is just a "unnamed" scalar variable typically used
in the following way:

scalar() * point(0, 1)

Unfortunately, this fails with the current version of solve.py. (Even
scalar() * point(0) fails, because point is a vector, but scalar() is
a scalar.)

I have to come around that. And as more as I think about it, it become
clearer, that I need a second try for the term class (fixing this
issue as well as the limitation to linear terms). I've already started
something *really* cool yesterday evening, but didn't yet finished it.
Don't worry, I'm almost there, I think. So stay tuned ... ;-)

> > BTW, the name point (for a constant vector) vs. vector (for a
> > variable vector) might be worth a discussion.
> 
> Yeah, I thought about that when I read the code, but didn't comment on
> it. Doesn't sound completely obvious to me. (*Must* they be two
> separate classes?)

No, you're right! This was an important point to me. I'm working along
that line. So thanks, this discussion helps me a lot ...


André

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