- Note that this will always return a matrix. The standard basis
- in `R^n` will be returned as `n`-by-`1` column matrices.
+ But, when we construct an algebra from a basis of matrices,
+ those matrix representations are lost in favor of coordinate
+ vectors *with respect to* that basis. We could eventually
+ convert back if we tried hard enough, but having the original
+ representations handy is valuable enough that we simply store
+ them and return them from this method.
+
+ Why implement this for non-matrix algebras? Avoiding special
+ cases for the :class:`BilinearFormEJA` pays with simplicity in
+ its own right. But mainly, we would like to be able to assume
+ that elements of a :class:`DirectSumEJA` can be displayed
+ nicely, without having to have special classes for direct sums
+ one of whose components was a matrix algebra.