Row majority vs. Column majority

[E. Joshua Rigler]

I realize that if do_fortran_indexing is turned on, 2 dimensional array
elements can be accessed sequentially in a Column Major indexing
scheme.  I have two related questions regarding this, and one slightly
off-topic question for this list (but I hope folks will humor me):

1.0) Is this optimal?  In otherwords, are the array elements truly
sequential in memory, or is this simply to emulate Matlab?  I ask
because it seems to me that C/C++ is row major.

1.5) How exactly are matrices stored (internally) in Octave?  Are they a
part of some object that has its dimensinality specified?  Just curious.

2.0) Would anyone care to explain to me, or point me at literature, that
explains how row/column majority is interpreted in N-dimensional
arrays?  I am writing some functions that may, at times, access
N-dimensional arrays in binary data files.  I am currently only reading
them into a linear vector, and passing this to Octave, and hoping that
standardized N-D functionality will be available in the near future.

I thought I actually posted a similar question once before, but I never
received and answer, and I couldn't find it in the archives, so forgive
me if I repeat myself.

Thanks,

-EJR



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