re: BIRD29 Name for new banded matrix structure

Bob and others,

Yes, we could manage without a new keyword, overloading the
meaning of [banded], but I think it is better to add a new
keyword [augmented], or possibly to add some other notation to
the matrix definition to indicate to the parser the intention
of augmenting the matix.

One of the functions of the parser is to make sure the data
is valid, which is partially lost if we start overloading
keywords. Tools that do not have strong syntax checking are
generally much harder to use than those that do because small
errors can be difficult to find without automatic checking.

So, I still vote for a new keyword, [augmented].

Chris Reid
Received on Thu Jun 1 10:48:46 1995