I have written a short packagefor handling vectors of length 3 in a fashion similar to expr. I enclose some of the code below and would welcome comments. John Kendrick Examples of the use of the package are as follows. ---- # package require vexpr 1.1 namespace import vexpr::* set v1 { 0 0 1 } set v2 { 0 1 0 } puts stdout "v1 = $v1" puts stdout "v2 = $v2" set v3 [ vexpr $v1 + $v2 ] puts stdout "v3 = v1 + v2 = $v3 " puts stdout "v1 + v2 = [ vexpr $v1 + $v2 ]" puts stdout "v1 - v2 = [ vexpr $v1 - $v2 ]" puts stdout "v1 . v2 = [ vexpr $v1 . $v2 ]" puts stdout "v1 X v2 = [ vexpr $v1 X $v2 ]" puts stdout "v3 size =[ vexpr $v3 size ]" puts stdout "v3 normalise = [ vexpr $v3 normalise ]" puts stdout "3 * v3 = [ vexpr 3 * $v3 ]" puts stdout "v3 / 3.0 = [ vexpr $v3 / 3.0 ]" puts stdout "v3 shift 3 = [ vexpr $v3 shift 3 ]" # set v3 [ vexpr ( $v1 + $v2 ) ] puts stderr "v3 = ($v1 + $v2 ) = $v3" set v3 [ vexpr ( 2 * $v1 + $v2 ) ] puts stderr "v3 = (2 * $v1 + $v2 ) = $v3" set v3 [ vexpr 2 * ( $v1 + $v2 ) ] puts stderr "v3 = 2 * ( $v1 + $v2 ) = $v3" set v3 [ vexpr 2 * ( $v1 + $v2 ) + $v2 ] puts stderr "v3 = 2 * ( $v1 + $v2 ) + $v2 = $v3" set v3 [ vexpr 2 * ( $v1 + $v2 ) + ( 3 * $v2 / 3 ) ] puts stderr "v3 = 2 * ( $v1 + $v2 ) + ( 3 * $v2 / 3 ) = $v3" set v4 [ vexpr 2 * ( $v1 + $v2 ) - $v3 + ( 2 * ( $v1 X $v2 ) - $v2 ) ] puts stdout "v4 = 2 * ( $v1 + $v2 ) - $v3 + ( 2 * ( $v1 X $v2 ) - $v2 )= $v4" ---- # vexpr.tcl package provide vexpr 1.1 namespace eval ::vexpr:: { namespace export vexpr variable argc variable sum } proc ::vexpr::vexpr { args } { # # vexpr # an expression evaluator for vectors. # brackets are used to enforce the order of operation # expression is evaluated from left to right # operators allowed are; ( v1 and v2 are vectors, s is a scalar ) # v1 + v2 add # v1 - v2 subtract # v1 shift s shift # v1 X v2 cross product # v1 . v2 dot product # s * v1 scale of v1 ( note order of scalar and vector is important) # v1 / s scaling of v1 # v1 size norm of v1 # v1 normalise return a normalised v1 # variable argc variable sum set depth 0 ;# depth is the depth of brackets encountered set argc(0) 0 ;# argc holds the number of arguments found so far set sum(0,0) "" ;# sum holds the 3 components of a sum set sum(0,1) "" ;# a op b set sum(0,2) "" ;# foreach element $args { if { $element == "(" } { # go to the next level of brackets and initialise incr depth set argc($depth) 0 set sum($depth,0) "" set sum($depth,1) "" set sum($depth,2) "" } elseif { $element == ")" } { # finished with the present level, evaluate current expression and # move up in depth. Store the result. set result [ _getResult $depth ] incr depth -1 set sum($depth,$argc($depth)) $result _addToList $depth } else { # store the next argument in the list set sum($depth,$argc($depth)) $element _addToList $depth } } return [ _getResult $depth ] } proc ::vexpr::_addToList { depth } { # # Increment the number of arguments at this depth # if we have 3 then evaluate and store # variable argc variable sum incr argc($depth) if { $argc($depth) > 2 } { set sum($depth,0) [ _voperate $sum($depth,0) $sum($depth,1) $sum($depth,2) ] set argc($depth) 1 set sum($depth,1) "" set sum($depth,2) "" } } proc ::vexpr::_getResult { depth } { # # Return the result. If we have had 1 binary op # it will have been completed, but if unary it will not have been # variable argc variable sum if { $sum($depth,1) == "" } { set result $sum($depth,0) } else { set result [ _voperate $sum($depth,0) $sum($depth,1) $sum($depth,2) ] } } proc ::vexpr::_voperate { a op { b {} } } { switch -- $op { + { set result [ _vadd $a $b ] } - { set result [ _vsub $a $b ] } shift { set result [ _vshift $a $b ] } X { set result [ _vcross $a $b ] } . { set result [ _vdot $a $b ] } * { set result [ _vscale $a $b ] } / { set result [ _vdivide $a $b ] } normalise { set result [ _vnormalise $a ] } size { set result [ _vsize $a ] } default { puts stderr "Unkown operator $op" } } } proc ::vexpr::_vshift { v1 s } { # # Shift vector by s # set r "" foreach a $v1 { lappend r [ expr { $a + $s } ] } return $r } proc ::vexpr::_vadd { v1 v2 } { # # Add two Vectors # set r "" foreach a $v1 b $v2 { lappend r [ expr { $a + $b } ] } return $r } proc ::vexpr::_vsub { v1 v2 } { # # Subtract two Vectors # set r "" foreach a $v1 b $v2 { lappend r [ expr { $a - $b } ] } return $r } proc ::vexpr::_vdot { v1 v2 } { # # dot product of two Vectors # set sum 0.0 foreach a $v1 b $v2 { set sum [ expr { $sum + ( $a * $b ) } ] } return $sum } proc ::vexpr::_vnormalise { v1 } { # # Normalise a vector # set sum [ _vsize $v1 ] return [ _vdivide $v1 $sum ] } proc ::vexpr::_vsize { v1 } { # # size of a vector # set sum [ _vdot $v1 $v1 ] set sum [ expr { sqrt ( $sum ) } ] return $sum } proc ::vexpr::_vcross { v1 v2 } { # # cross product of two Vectors # set r "" set ax [ lindex $v1 0 ] set ay [ lindex $v1 1 ] set az [ lindex $v1 2 ] set bx [ lindex $v2 0 ] set by [ lindex $v2 1 ] set bz [ lindex $v2 2 ] set cx [ expr { ($ay*$bz) - ($az*$by) } ] set cy [ expr { ($az*$bx) - ($ax*$bz) } ] set cz [ expr { ($ax*$by) - ($ay*$bx) } ] set r [ list $cx $cy $cz ] return $r } proc ::vexpr::_vscale { s v1 } { # # scale a vector # set r "" foreach a $v1 { lappend r [ expr { $a * $s } ] } return $r } proc ::vexpr::_vdivide { v1 s } { # # scale a vector # set r "" foreach a $v1 { lappend r [ expr { $a / $s } ] } return $r } ---- [MSW] please let code have a leading space :)