two-dim arrays of matrices?



Hello all,

I need to put matrices into 2-dimensional array 
OR into some sort of structure having a pair of 
numerical keys.

What is the best practice for that? I wouldn't 
want to loose efficiency using something 
anti-optimal.

This might be an elementary question, but I'm 
absolutely new at Maxima, and I can't find what 
I need in docs or on the web, it seems.

1) I understand I might just generate names with 
"indices" at run time (by "evaluation" 
operation), but I'd prefer to use indexing with 
numbers.

Also, is there an equivalent of C/C++ 
pointer/reference construct?

2) Or I might use 3- or 4-dimensional arrays but 
I don't know how to select a single matrix from 
such a structure (something like using C/C++ 
A[i] selection from A[][] array).
Also, will the result of such selection have the 
matrix type and be operable as one?

Are these approaches equivalent in efficiency?

-Yury