What is the motivation behind naming identity matrix as “eye”?
$begingroup$
Matlab, as well as some other PLs (e.g. Python's numpy package) use "eye" as a function name for creation of the identity matrix. Why is that so?
matlab
asked Dec 6 '18 at 11:46
J DoeJ Doe
133
$endgroup$
|
show 8 more comments
$begingroup$
Matlab, as well as some other PLs (e.g. Python's numpy package) use "eye" as a function name for creation of the identity matrix. Why is that so?
matlab
asked Dec 6 '18 at 11:46
J DoeJ Doe
133
$endgroup$
$begingroup$
isn't it just to avoid a single letter like "I" for a built-in?
$endgroup$
– postmortes
Dec 6 '18 at 11:50
$begingroup$
@postmortes, maybe. But I'm personally seeing this "eye" as a biological organ. Perhaps that is because I'm not a native English speaker. I just wonder
$endgroup$
– J Doe
Dec 6 '18 at 11:52
$begingroup$
ah, "eye" is sometimes used to 'spell' I in English; Similarly h is 'spelled' aitch, and f is spelled eff. Probably not something you'd know if you weren't a native speaker though
$endgroup$
– postmortes
Dec 6 '18 at 11:55
$begingroup$
@postmortes, don't you want to post that as an answer please?
$endgroup$
– J Doe
Dec 6 '18 at 11:58
1
$begingroup$
John Lawler, a fairly respectable linguist, gives the list here ( groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.usage.english/LZRjRbMHPe8 ) in a 1996 usenet post. @JDoe if I get any time at all this afternoon I'll pull this all together into an answer, but I expect someone will beat me to it
$endgroup$
– postmortes
Dec 6 '18 at 14:40
|
show 8 more comments
$begingroup$
Matlab, as well as some other PLs (e.g. Python's numpy package) use "eye" as a function name for creation of the identity matrix. Why is that so?
matlab
asked Dec 6 '18 at 11:46
J DoeJ Doe
133
$endgroup$
Matlab, as well as some other PLs (e.g. Python's numpy package) use "eye" as a function name for creation of the identity matrix. Why is that so?
matlab
matlab
asked Dec 6 '18 at 11:46
J DoeJ Doe
133
asked Dec 6 '18 at 11:46
J DoeJ Doe
133
asked Dec 6 '18 at 11:46
J DoeJ Doe
133
asked Dec 6 '18 at 11:46
J DoeJ Doe
133
asked Dec 6 '18 at 11:46
J DoeJ Doe
133
133
$begingroup$
isn't it just to avoid a single letter like "I" for a built-in?
$endgroup$
– postmortes
Dec 6 '18 at 11:50
$begingroup$
@postmortes, maybe. But I'm personally seeing this "eye" as a biological organ. Perhaps that is because I'm not a native English speaker. I just wonder
$endgroup$
– J Doe
Dec 6 '18 at 11:52
$begingroup$
ah, "eye" is sometimes used to 'spell' I in English; Similarly h is 'spelled' aitch, and f is spelled eff. Probably not something you'd know if you weren't a native speaker though
$endgroup$
– postmortes
Dec 6 '18 at 11:55
$begingroup$
@postmortes, don't you want to post that as an answer please?
$endgroup$
– J Doe
Dec 6 '18 at 11:58
1
$begingroup$
John Lawler, a fairly respectable linguist, gives the list here ( groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.usage.english/LZRjRbMHPe8 ) in a 1996 usenet post. @JDoe if I get any time at all this afternoon I'll pull this all together into an answer, but I expect someone will beat me to it
$endgroup$
– postmortes
Dec 6 '18 at 14:40
|
show 8 more comments
$begingroup$
isn't it just to avoid a single letter like "I" for a built-in?
$endgroup$
– postmortes
Dec 6 '18 at 11:50
$begingroup$
@postmortes, maybe. But I'm personally seeing this "eye" as a biological organ. Perhaps that is because I'm not a native English speaker. I just wonder
$endgroup$
– J Doe
Dec 6 '18 at 11:52
$begingroup$
ah, "eye" is sometimes used to 'spell' I in English; Similarly h is 'spelled' aitch, and f is spelled eff. Probably not something you'd know if you weren't a native speaker though
$endgroup$
– postmortes
Dec 6 '18 at 11:55
$begingroup$
@postmortes, don't you want to post that as an answer please?
$endgroup$
– J Doe
Dec 6 '18 at 11:58
1
$begingroup$
John Lawler, a fairly respectable linguist, gives the list here ( groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.usage.english/LZRjRbMHPe8 ) in a 1996 usenet post. @JDoe if I get any time at all this afternoon I'll pull this all together into an answer, but I expect someone will beat me to it
$endgroup$
– postmortes
Dec 6 '18 at 14:40
$begingroup$
isn't it just to avoid a single letter like "I" for a built-in?
$endgroup$
– postmortes
Dec 6 '18 at 11:50
$begingroup$
isn't it just to avoid a single letter like "I" for a built-in?
$endgroup$
– postmortes
Dec 6 '18 at 11:50
$begingroup$
@postmortes, maybe. But I'm personally seeing this "eye" as a biological organ. Perhaps that is because I'm not a native English speaker. I just wonder
$endgroup$
– J Doe
Dec 6 '18 at 11:52
$begingroup$
@postmortes, maybe. But I'm personally seeing this "eye" as a biological organ. Perhaps that is because I'm not a native English speaker. I just wonder
$endgroup$
– J Doe
Dec 6 '18 at 11:52
$begingroup$
ah, "eye" is sometimes used to 'spell' I in English; Similarly h is 'spelled' aitch, and f is spelled eff. Probably not something you'd know if you weren't a native speaker though
$endgroup$
– postmortes
Dec 6 '18 at 11:55
$begingroup$
ah, "eye" is sometimes used to 'spell' I in English; Similarly h is 'spelled' aitch, and f is spelled eff. Probably not something you'd know if you weren't a native speaker though
$endgroup$
– postmortes
Dec 6 '18 at 11:55
$begingroup$
@postmortes, don't you want to post that as an answer please?
$endgroup$
– J Doe
Dec 6 '18 at 11:58
$begingroup$
@postmortes, don't you want to post that as an answer please?
$endgroup$
– J Doe
Dec 6 '18 at 11:58
1
1
$begingroup$
John Lawler, a fairly respectable linguist, gives the list here ( groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.usage.english/LZRjRbMHPe8 ) in a 1996 usenet post. @JDoe if I get any time at all this afternoon I'll pull this all together into an answer, but I expect someone will beat me to it
$endgroup$
– postmortes
Dec 6 '18 at 14:40
$begingroup$
John Lawler, a fairly respectable linguist, gives the list here ( groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.usage.english/LZRjRbMHPe8 ) in a 1996 usenet post. @JDoe if I get any time at all this afternoon I'll pull this all together into an answer, but I expect someone will beat me to it
$endgroup$
– postmortes
Dec 6 '18 at 14:40
|
show 8 more comments
1 Answer
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$begingroup$
In Matlab, i is treated as a function (see https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/i.html ) returning the imaginary unit $sqrt{-1}$. To avoid confusion with that, eye is used to represent the unit matrix. I couldn't find any documentation on the mathworks site explaining the choice, but the likely answer is that it's because eye is used in English as a way to spell the name of the letter 'I'.
The 'spelling-names' for English letters are given by John Lawler in this post (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.usage.english/LZRjRbMHPe8 ), and listed below for convenient reference.
a /e/ A [cap preferred]
b /bi/ B [ditto; 'bee' more common than 'be']
c /si/ C [ ", 'see'; but 'C-note' and 'cee-note' both occur]
d /di/ dee
e /i/ ee or E
f /ef/ ef, or eff ['you effing idiot!']
g /ji/ gee ['jee' is possible but not recommended]
h /ec^/ aitch [the 't' seems to be required]
i /ay/ I or aye, occasionally 'eye'; cf 'eye-dialect'
j /je/ jay
k /ke/ kay
l /El/ el, or ell
m /Em/ em [cf em-dash]
n /En/ en [cf en-dash]
o /o/ oh or owe ['ow' makes more sense but is already /aw/]
p /pi/ P ['pee' is less common, because of its vulgar homophone]
q /kyu/ queue, or cue [not recommended]`
r /ar/ are? ar? ahr? arr? nothing looks good; use R
s /es/ es or ess
t /ti/ tee
u /yu/ you, or yoo
v /vi/ vee [delta-vee, or dee-vee]
w /d@b@lyu/ double-u or doubleyou
x /Eks/ ex [shorter to spell than to pronounce!]
y /way/ why, or wye
z /zi/ zee [US usage; elsewhere zed]
Spelling the letter names is not frequent enough in written English to be standard. There's
lots of variation.
As noted in both John Lawler's list and timtfj's comment, some of the letter names have taken on lives of their own, with em- and en-dash occuring in printing and denoting the width of a capital M or capital N in the chosen font.
$endgroup$
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$begingroup$
In Matlab, i is treated as a function (see https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/i.html ) returning the imaginary unit $sqrt{-1}$. To avoid confusion with that, eye is used to represent the unit matrix. I couldn't find any documentation on the mathworks site explaining the choice, but the likely answer is that it's because eye is used in English as a way to spell the name of the letter 'I'.
The 'spelling-names' for English letters are given by John Lawler in this post (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.usage.english/LZRjRbMHPe8 ), and listed below for convenient reference.
a /e/ A [cap preferred]
b /bi/ B [ditto; 'bee' more common than 'be']
c /si/ C [ ", 'see'; but 'C-note' and 'cee-note' both occur]
d /di/ dee
e /i/ ee or E
f /ef/ ef, or eff ['you effing idiot!']
g /ji/ gee ['jee' is possible but not recommended]
h /ec^/ aitch [the 't' seems to be required]
i /ay/ I or aye, occasionally 'eye'; cf 'eye-dialect'
j /je/ jay
k /ke/ kay
l /El/ el, or ell
m /Em/ em [cf em-dash]
n /En/ en [cf en-dash]
o /o/ oh or owe ['ow' makes more sense but is already /aw/]
p /pi/ P ['pee' is less common, because of its vulgar homophone]
q /kyu/ queue, or cue [not recommended]`
r /ar/ are? ar? ahr? arr? nothing looks good; use R
s /es/ es or ess
t /ti/ tee
u /yu/ you, or yoo
v /vi/ vee [delta-vee, or dee-vee]
w /d@b@lyu/ double-u or doubleyou
x /Eks/ ex [shorter to spell than to pronounce!]
y /way/ why, or wye
z /zi/ zee [US usage; elsewhere zed]
Spelling the letter names is not frequent enough in written English to be standard. There's
lots of variation.
As noted in both John Lawler's list and timtfj's comment, some of the letter names have taken on lives of their own, with em- and en-dash occuring in printing and denoting the width of a capital M or capital N in the chosen font.
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
In Matlab, i is treated as a function (see https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/i.html ) returning the imaginary unit $sqrt{-1}$. To avoid confusion with that, eye is used to represent the unit matrix. I couldn't find any documentation on the mathworks site explaining the choice, but the likely answer is that it's because eye is used in English as a way to spell the name of the letter 'I'.
The 'spelling-names' for English letters are given by John Lawler in this post (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.usage.english/LZRjRbMHPe8 ), and listed below for convenient reference.
a /e/ A [cap preferred]
b /bi/ B [ditto; 'bee' more common than 'be']
c /si/ C [ ", 'see'; but 'C-note' and 'cee-note' both occur]
d /di/ dee
e /i/ ee or E
f /ef/ ef, or eff ['you effing idiot!']
g /ji/ gee ['jee' is possible but not recommended]
h /ec^/ aitch [the 't' seems to be required]
i /ay/ I or aye, occasionally 'eye'; cf 'eye-dialect'
j /je/ jay
k /ke/ kay
l /El/ el, or ell
m /Em/ em [cf em-dash]
n /En/ en [cf en-dash]
o /o/ oh or owe ['ow' makes more sense but is already /aw/]
p /pi/ P ['pee' is less common, because of its vulgar homophone]
q /kyu/ queue, or cue [not recommended]`
r /ar/ are? ar? ahr? arr? nothing looks good; use R
s /es/ es or ess
t /ti/ tee
u /yu/ you, or yoo
v /vi/ vee [delta-vee, or dee-vee]
w /d@b@lyu/ double-u or doubleyou
x /Eks/ ex [shorter to spell than to pronounce!]
y /way/ why, or wye
z /zi/ zee [US usage; elsewhere zed]
Spelling the letter names is not frequent enough in written English to be standard. There's
lots of variation.
As noted in both John Lawler's list and timtfj's comment, some of the letter names have taken on lives of their own, with em- and en-dash occuring in printing and denoting the width of a capital M or capital N in the chosen font.
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
In Matlab, i is treated as a function (see https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/i.html ) returning the imaginary unit $sqrt{-1}$. To avoid confusion with that, eye is used to represent the unit matrix. I couldn't find any documentation on the mathworks site explaining the choice, but the likely answer is that it's because eye is used in English as a way to spell the name of the letter 'I'.
The 'spelling-names' for English letters are given by John Lawler in this post (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.usage.english/LZRjRbMHPe8 ), and listed below for convenient reference.
a /e/ A [cap preferred]
b /bi/ B [ditto; 'bee' more common than 'be']
c /si/ C [ ", 'see'; but 'C-note' and 'cee-note' both occur]
d /di/ dee
e /i/ ee or E
f /ef/ ef, or eff ['you effing idiot!']
g /ji/ gee ['jee' is possible but not recommended]
h /ec^/ aitch [the 't' seems to be required]
i /ay/ I or aye, occasionally 'eye'; cf 'eye-dialect'
j /je/ jay
k /ke/ kay
l /El/ el, or ell
m /Em/ em [cf em-dash]
n /En/ en [cf en-dash]
o /o/ oh or owe ['ow' makes more sense but is already /aw/]
p /pi/ P ['pee' is less common, because of its vulgar homophone]
q /kyu/ queue, or cue [not recommended]`
r /ar/ are? ar? ahr? arr? nothing looks good; use R
s /es/ es or ess
t /ti/ tee
u /yu/ you, or yoo
v /vi/ vee [delta-vee, or dee-vee]
w /d@b@lyu/ double-u or doubleyou
x /Eks/ ex [shorter to spell than to pronounce!]
y /way/ why, or wye
z /zi/ zee [US usage; elsewhere zed]
Spelling the letter names is not frequent enough in written English to be standard. There's
lots of variation.
As noted in both John Lawler's list and timtfj's comment, some of the letter names have taken on lives of their own, with em- and en-dash occuring in printing and denoting the width of a capital M or capital N in the chosen font.
$endgroup$
In Matlab, i is treated as a function (see https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/i.html ) returning the imaginary unit $sqrt{-1}$. To avoid confusion with that, eye is used to represent the unit matrix. I couldn't find any documentation on the mathworks site explaining the choice, but the likely answer is that it's because eye is used in English as a way to spell the name of the letter 'I'.
The 'spelling-names' for English letters are given by John Lawler in this post (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.usage.english/LZRjRbMHPe8 ), and listed below for convenient reference.
a /e/ A [cap preferred]
b /bi/ B [ditto; 'bee' more common than 'be']
c /si/ C [ ", 'see'; but 'C-note' and 'cee-note' both occur]
d /di/ dee
e /i/ ee or E
f /ef/ ef, or eff ['you effing idiot!']
g /ji/ gee ['jee' is possible but not recommended]
h /ec^/ aitch [the 't' seems to be required]
i /ay/ I or aye, occasionally 'eye'; cf 'eye-dialect'
j /je/ jay
k /ke/ kay
l /El/ el, or ell
m /Em/ em [cf em-dash]
n /En/ en [cf en-dash]
o /o/ oh or owe ['ow' makes more sense but is already /aw/]
p /pi/ P ['pee' is less common, because of its vulgar homophone]
q /kyu/ queue, or cue [not recommended]`
r /ar/ are? ar? ahr? arr? nothing looks good; use R
s /es/ es or ess
t /ti/ tee
u /yu/ you, or yoo
v /vi/ vee [delta-vee, or dee-vee]
w /d@b@lyu/ double-u or doubleyou
x /Eks/ ex [shorter to spell than to pronounce!]
y /way/ why, or wye
z /zi/ zee [US usage; elsewhere zed]
Spelling the letter names is not frequent enough in written English to be standard. There's
lots of variation.
As noted in both John Lawler's list and timtfj's comment, some of the letter names have taken on lives of their own, with em- and en-dash occuring in printing and denoting the width of a capital M or capital N in the chosen font.
answered Dec 6 '18 at 20:23
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postmortes
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$begingroup$
isn't it just to avoid a single letter like "I" for a built-in?
$endgroup$
– postmortes
Dec 6 '18 at 11:50
$begingroup$
@postmortes, maybe. But I'm personally seeing this "eye" as a biological organ. Perhaps that is because I'm not a native English speaker. I just wonder
$endgroup$
– J Doe
Dec 6 '18 at 11:52
$begingroup$
ah, "eye" is sometimes used to 'spell' I in English; Similarly h is 'spelled' aitch, and f is spelled eff. Probably not something you'd know if you weren't a native speaker though
$endgroup$
– postmortes
Dec 6 '18 at 11:55
$begingroup$
@postmortes, don't you want to post that as an answer please?
$endgroup$
– J Doe
Dec 6 '18 at 11:58
1
$begingroup$
John Lawler, a fairly respectable linguist, gives the list here ( groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.usage.english/LZRjRbMHPe8 ) in a 1996 usenet post. @JDoe if I get any time at all this afternoon I'll pull this all together into an answer, but I expect someone will beat me to it
$endgroup$
– postmortes
Dec 6 '18 at 14:40