[PD] Multi-dimensional arrays

[Mathieu Bouchard]

On Sat, 29 Jan 2011, Andrew Faraday wrote:

> I havn't tried store, but you can always use multiple arrays with the same index, IE
> (arrays) pos-X, pos-Y, pos-Z
> I know that ascii hasn't come across very well, but it basically 
> translates to multiple dimentions called up by the same index

Ok, I don't think Tedb0t meant that. In your case, you have multiple 
dimensions in the space in which you pick each "value". The normal meaning 
of "3-dimensional array" is an array in which the indices have three 
dimensions.

So, in your case, the data has 2 dimensions of indices, the latter 
dimension being used to pick X,Y,Z. if it's a numbered dimension, 0 may 
stand for X, 1 for Y, and 2 for Z.

In our case, if the first dimension of indices has 50 possibilities, and 
the 2nd has 240 possibilities, and the 3rd has 320 possibilities, there 
are 50*240*320 = 3840000 elements that need to be put somewhere, and I 
don't think we'd like to spread that over too many arrays.

"Your" concept of dimension is often called "channel" instead of 
"dimension" in GridFlow, such as the R,G,B channels of a colour picture 
(or Y,U,V channels, etc.). But many GridFlow object-classes don't know 
what's a channel, and don't need to know. In any case, a single structure 
contains all channels, numbered. Thus it's easy to have any number of 
channels, even a million.

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| Mathieu Bouchard ---- tél: +1.514.383.3801 ---- Villeray, Montréal, QC