I suspect this was to distance matrix mult from traditional scalar mult operators. Remember that ** is just shorthand for n *s. whereas matrix mult is a d

I suspect this was to distance matrix mult from traditional scalar mult operators. Remember that ** is just shorthand for n *s. whereas matrix mult is a different beast entirely. There is also added clutter with 3* where typos may be non-obvious (already a potential issue with ** I guess). Nice, using verbatim to get around markup...