Re: c.d.theory glossary -- definition of "class"

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"Paul" <paul_at_test.com> wrote in message
news:QeZDc.448$Fc7.116786_at_stones.force9.net...
> Marshall Spight wrote:
> > I am in general agreement. But perhaps you can clarify something
> > for me: how is an operator different from a function?
> >
> > ISTM that "function" is the term with the clearest definition
> > and the longest history. I tend to use "function" and "operator"
> > interchangably, but I can't help but have this nagging feeling
> > that there is some nuance to the second term that I'm unaware
> > of.
>
> There's some discussion of this here:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operator
>
> Basically it seems to be saying an operator is a function bundled with
> the types of its operands. I'm still don't entirely understand the
> distinction though. Maybe for a function you just specify the *set* of
> the operands rather than the *type*?
>
> It says that "Functions can therefore conversely be considered
> operators, for which we forget some of the type baggage, leaving just
> labels for the domain and codomain". I'm not sure what it means by
> "labels" here.
>
> Though further on it seems to say they mean the same thing and the word
> "operator" is just used by convention for things like functions that
> have functions as operands, or functions that have matrices as operands.

It seems the term function is used in Calculus and the term operator is used in Algebra.

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