Re: Removing broadcasting from Octave

[Judd Storrs]

2011/12/15 Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso <address@hidden>:
> 2011/12/15 Søren Hauberg <address@hidden>:
>> tor, 15 12 2011 kl. 02:42 -0500, skrev Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso:
>>> Can we change the wording? I really think "broadcasting" is a clearer
>>> term instead of having to expand the BSX acronym... or perhaps the
>>> reference to bsxfun will make people look up that function?
>>
>> Just a note from the ignorant: I really don't understand the word
>> "broadcasting" -- to me it sounds like something related to television
>> or networking.
>
> A broadcast is when something is spread out, expanded, copied and
> multiplied, like EM waves spread from one antenna to many others to
> reach viewers. A vector can be broadcast across a matrix when added,
> or two vectors can be broadcast across each other to obtain a matrix.

If you sat down to describe this to anyone you would never use the
word "broadcast". It's quite a boring and confusing phrase for an
exciting feature.

"Broadcast" to me (and probably anyone) conjures a sense of
communication or signaling not duplication. It's a really unexpected
use. I can't imagine telling anyone about this feature and using the
word "broadcast" without also having to redefine their understanding
of the word "broadcast". This should be a key feature to lord over
Matlab users, but this phrasing is just suicide. Compare to other
expressions that someone might use to describe this. I think if it was
called something like "implied subscript loop", "size-adaptive
operators" or "automatic expansion" people would want to find out what
it is. "Broadcast" is too abstract.


--judd