Hello everybody out there ! ajb@spamcop.net a écrit :
The reason is that while there is only one "obvious" way to multiply two general matrices
Well... Not really : there is many algorithms which purpose is to speed up matrices multiplications, such as Coppersmith and Winnograd algorithm.
Gaussian elimination, LU decomposition and Cramer's rule (to name but three) are all ways to invert a general matrix, each of which has different efficiency and stability properties, and which return different answers on the same floating point hardware. This means that if you want to invert a matrix, you have to pick an algorithm appropriate to your problem. It's therefore impossible to supply an operation of the form inverse(m) which is generally useful.
I totaly agree with it. Best regards. Yoann LE BARS