Matrix API support - start with formats?

[Andrei Alexandrescu via Digitalmars-d]

On 8/14/15 11:11 AM, ponce wrote:
> On Friday, 14 August 2015 at 14:57:19 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>> I stumbled upon https://software.intel.com/en-us/node/471374 which
>> gives good detail on Intel's Math Kernel Library's data formats for
>> sparse matrices.
>>
>> No doubt other popular linear algebra libraries have similar
>> documentation. I was thinking we could start with adding these layouts
>> to std, along with a few simple primitives (construction,
>> element/slice access, stride etc). Then, people may just use those as
>> they are or link with the linalg libraries for specific computations.
>>
>>
>> Thoughts?
>>
>> Andrei
>
> Are sparse matrices a common scenario?

In machine learning, yes. But order is not as important as the basic 
strategy: layouts + simple/naive primitives in Phobos, elaborate 
primitives in specialized external libraries. -- Andrei