Re: why are there [v e c t o r s] in Lisp?

[Barry Margolin]

In article <876126w0t8.fsf@debian.uxu>,
 Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> wrote:

> "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com>
> writes:
> 
> > The essence of vector is to define a direction and
> > a magnitude. Notably for vector spaces without
> > a finite basis, V/|V| is still the direction of the
> > vector V, intrinsically (every unitary vector is
> > a distinct direction).
> 
> Yes, but perhaps what Aurélien Aptel said (vectors in
> linear algebra being a tool concept to model just
> about anything) is analogous to the vectors of Elisp
> being data structures that can hold data for virtually
> any purpose? And then, why aren't the Elisp vectors
> simply called "arrays" like everywhere else?

Traditionally in Lisp, "array" has meant multi-dimensional arrays, while 
"vector" means 1-dimensional arrays.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***