string? what does that even mean? why is it not called a char_array or something? and then null terminated string? You mean random_access_char_stream? Who came up with this nonsense? and everyone is gobbling it up!

@namark I'm going to hazard a guess that it comes from the lesser used definition of string: "a group of objects arranged in a line" similar to the phrase "a string of pearls". In this case, a string of anything is simply an array/vector. However, array/vector isn't something typically used outside of STEM vocabulary, so perhaps the more linguistically associated word (string) being aligned with linguistically associated data (character arrays) makes sense.

Alternatively, arbitrary jargon almost always finds its way into different fields via wackos who create poorly fitting analogies, so who knows lmao

@johnabs @namark But if you can't decompose something into its basis components or take inner products then it's not really a vector it's just an accounting list.
Follow

@cirnog @namark But you can do both of those things to a string vector so long as you count as decomposing to basic components as indexing the elements, and an outer product can be done using any binary function, not just functions that operate on numeric values. Right?

@cirnog @namark Whoops, I misread inner as outer lmao. In that case, I'm really not sure, but I would imagine you could construct a function for that too, though I could be wrong.

Sign in to participate in the conversation
Qoto Mastodon

QOTO: Question Others to Teach Ourselves
An inclusive, Academic Freedom, instance
All cultures welcome.
Hate speech and harassment strictly forbidden.