mini / maxi functions



El jue, 12-08-2010 a las 12:26 -0400, Stavros Macrakis escribi?:
> matrix_max and matrix_min are ambiguous: are they row-wise,
> column-wise, or whole-matrix?
> 
> 
>             -s
> 
> On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 12:25, Robert Dodier <robert.dodier at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>         
>         I dunno. Maxima has a very large namespace so less frequently
>         used names should be spelled out. Also, I don't see that this
>         operation is peculiar to observational data. So instead of
>         smin, smax I'll recommend matrix_min and matrix_max.


Hello,

Probably, more general functions for calculating matrix extrema (rows,
columns and whole) should be written outside of package descriptive; the
first argument would be the matrix, and the second (optional) argument
one of the key words 'rows, 'column or 'whole, or something similar.

But specific names for observational data could be an advantage in case
descriptive functions are extended to 'amatrix' objects. Then, it'd be
strange to ask for minima calling function matrix_min; smin could handle
both cases.

--
Mario