Matrix class for ruby?

Ruby
1

Does anyone know of a functional Matrix math class for ruby that could
multiply, add and substract 3x2 or larger matrices.

The matrix.rb that is in Ruby API cannot multiply anything larger than
2x2
matrices, which makes it useless for 2D or 3D graphics (for instance).

SP

2

On 12/21/06, seepee [email protected] wrote:

Does anyone know of a functional Matrix math class for ruby that could
multiply, add and substract 3x2 or larger matrices.

The matrix.rb that is in Ruby API cannot multiply anything larger than 2x2
matrices, which makes it useless for 2D or 3D graphics (for instance).

Are you sure?

$ irb
irb(main):001:0> Matrix[[1,2,3],[1,2,3],[1,2,3]] *
Matrix[[1,2,3],[1,2,3],[1,2,3]]
=> Matrix[[6, 12, 18], [6, 12, 18], [6, 12, 18]]
irb(main):002:0> VERSION
=> 1.8.4
$

3

seepee wrote:

Does anyone know of a functional Matrix math class for ruby that could
multiply, add and substract 3x2 or larger matrices.

The matrix.rb that is in Ruby API cannot multiply anything larger than 2x2
matrices, which makes it useless for 2D or 3D graphics (for instance).

OK, I understand now: you want graphical transformations. They are
not real matrices, but the combination of a real matrix and a
translation vector. So you need special rules to combine them (although
for additions and substractions, standard matrix multiplications should
work). I don’t know any package doing that in Ruby – but if you
consider writing one, that would definitely be an interesting addition.

Cheers !

Vince
4

On Dec 21, 2006, at 6:24 AM, Vincent F. wrote:

translation vector. So you need special rules to combine them (although
for additions and substractions, standard matrix multiplications should
work). I don’t know any package doing that in Ruby – but if you
consider writing one, that would definitely be an interesting addition.

An RST matrix has an implicit 0 0 0 1 row along the bottom. Nothing
more complicated than that.

Actually when dealing with projection matrices, this ‘implicit’ bottom
row gets used to define the perspective value of the camera.

That said, matrix.rb is very shoddy - it’s missing several important
vector operations (like, oh, -Vector and Vector/Numeric), and it uses
VectorMatrix instead of the correct MatrixVector.

Dan

5

Dan Uznanski wrote:

Actually when dealing with projection matrices, this ‘implicit’ bottom
row gets used to define the perspective value of the camera.

That said, matrix.rb is very shoddy - it’s missing several important
vector operations (like, oh, -Vector and Vector/Numeric), and it uses
VectorMatrix instead of the correct MatrixVector.

Dan

I wouldn’t call it “shoddy”. My biggest complaint with Matrix is that a
Matrix is immutable – if you want to set elements, you have to do so in
an Array and then create a new Matrix from the Array.

The whole rational / complex / matrix / mathn collection looks to me
like an attempt to provide “high-school algebra” constructs in Ruby that
work the way you’d expect them to work. For example, you can get the
exact inverse of a non-singular matrix with rational elements, and I
suppose, though I haven’t tried it, the same thing for a non-singular
matrix with complex rational elements. For small one-off calculations
and calculations where high speed isn’t required, they do just that.

However, if what you want to do is, say, lots of graphical
transformations at high speed using floating point arithmetic, like you
might in a video game, you want NArray.

–
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky, FBG, AB, PTA, PGS, MS, MNLP, NST, ACMC(P)
http://borasky-research.blogspot.com/

If God had meant for carrots to be eaten cooked, He would have given
rabbits fire.