max (matrix, DIM) does not behave as advertised

Francesco Potortì Potorti at isti.cnr.it
Wed Nov 12 05:45:04 CST 2008


>that is already present sufficient.. The text you referred to said "For 
>a matrix argument".. meaning a single matrix argument.

     For a vector argument, return the maximum value.  For a matrix
     argument, return the maximum value from each column, as a row
     vector, or over the dimension DIM if defined. For two matrices (or
     a matrix and scalar), return the pair-wise maximum.

Here is what I read:

1) if there is a single vector arg, retrun its max
2) if there is a single matrix arg, return column-wise max, or dim-wise
   max if argument DIM is there
3) if there are two matrices, or a matrix and a scalar ...

I guess that, for one more familiar with Octave than I am, this should
be sufficient.  But if a user like me gets into confusion, I think the
help string should be more clear.  This should suffice, if correct:

     For a vector argument, return the maximum value.  For a matrix
     argument, return the maximum value from each column, as a row
     vector, or over the dimension DIM: in this case, the second
     argument should be an empty matrix. For two matrices (or a matrix
     and scalar), return the pair-wise maximum.

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