Feature suggestion: impl Default for Zip, and add Zip::with_shape() constructor

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Assessment

Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Newbie friendliness
35/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
rust
Domain
data

Research direction

Start by reviewing the existing Zip::from, Zip::and, and and_broadcast entry points and how they handle shapes and broadcasting. Compare the proposed Default and Zip::with_shape APIs with the motivating example; done means the API direction and resulting behavior are clearly agreed and validated.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Motivating example: I'm computing 3D positions on a unit sphere from a uniform grid of (longitude, latitude) pairs. This is what it looks like now:

        const SHAPE: (usize, usize) = (HEIGHT, WIDTH);
        let cell_size_lon = TAU / WIDTH as f32;
        let cell_size_lat = PI / HEIGHT as f32;
        let lon = Array1::linspace(cell_size_lon, TAU - cell_size_lon, WIDTH)
            .into_shape((1, WIDTH)).unwrap();
        let lat = Array1::linspace(-FRAC_PI_2 + cell_size_lat, FRAC_PI_2 - cell_size_lat, HEIGHT)
            .into_shape((HEIGHT, 1)).unwrap();
        let pos = Zip::from(lat.mapv(f32::cos).broadcast(SHAPE).unwrap())
            .and(lat.mapv(f32::sin).broadcast(SHAPE).unwrap())
            .and(lon.mapv(f32::cos).broadcast(SHAPE).unwrap())
            .and(lon.mapv(f32::sin).broadcast(SHAPE).unwrap())
            .par_map_collect(|&cos_lat, &sin_lat, &cos_lon, &sin_lon| {
                Vec3::new(cos_lat * sin_lon, sin_lat, cos_lat * cos_lon)
            });

I know about azip! and par_azip! but I don't think the small reduction in character count outweighs the additional "magic" syntax, so I don't use them.

Notice the distinction between Zip::from and Zip::and even though these both serve the same purpose: add another producer to the Zip.

This lopsided distinction could be eliminated if Zip implemented Default (and/or had the customary zero-args new() constructor):

        let pos = Zip::default()
            .and(lat.mapv(f32::cos).broadcast(SHAPE).unwrap())
            .and(lat.mapv(f32::sin).broadcast(SHAPE).unwrap())
            .and(lon.mapv(f32::cos).broadcast(SHAPE).unwrap())
            .and(lon.mapv(f32::sin).broadcast(SHAPE).unwrap())
            .par_map_collect(|&cos_lat, &sin_lat, &cos_lon, &sin_lon| {
                Vec3::new(cos_lat * sin_lon, sin_lat, cos_lat * cos_lon)
            });

Even nicer (for this use case) would be if we could specify the shape once up front in the constructor, so we could use and_broadcast on all producers (not just the 2nd-4th):

        let pos = Zip::with_shape(SHAPE)
            .and_broadcast(lat.mapv(f32::cos))
            .and_broadcast(lat.mapv(f32::sin))
            .and_broadcast(lon.mapv(f32::cos))
            .and_broadcast(lon.mapv(f32::sin))
            .par_map_collect(|&cos_lat, &sin_lat, &cos_lon, &sin_lon| {
                Vec3::new(cos_lat * sin_lon, sin_lat, cos_lat * cos_lon)
            });

I can't tell whether this is at all feasible or desirable, just throwing it out there for your consideration, and so that other users with similar needs can chime in.

Dominant language
Rust
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