$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $.....
- To: MATHGROUP at yoda.physics.unc.edu
- Subject: $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $.....
- From: Ann M. Bell <ABELL at macc.wisc.edu>
- Date: Mon, 11 Apr 94 12:35 CDT
Hello, I was wondering if someone could tell me a little about those dollar signs that pop up everywhere in mathematica output (usually when the program isn't working). The immediate context I'm dealing with is auxiliary functions defined within a module: instead of The particular context I'm dealing with is auxiliary functions defined inside a module. Instead of the evaluated function I get something like prod2$35[{2,3}], or on other occasions a function like f[{x_,y_}] := list[[x,y]] evaluated f[{2,3}] will return list[[x,y]]. What does it mean when a global rule for a function (ie. what you get when you query ?f) is littered with $'s? The $'s seem to be (loosely) correlated with use of conditional function definitions, but I can't seem to find any consistency in the results. For example, a subroutine that worked fine yesterday suddenly returns parts of the function definition liberally interspersed with $'s and unevaluated variables...... Is the use of $'s in output and rule definitions discussed anywhere? I have another small (but extremely annoying) difficulty with my conditional functions definitions: prod1[w_ /; Length[list1[[w]] ] >= 1] := Module[{sel1,s1}, sel1[{x_,y_}] := prodfunc[[x,y]]; s1 = Map[sel1, list1[[w]] ]; globalprod[[w]] = Flatten[Append[globalprod[[w]], s1 ]]; ]; prod1[w_ /; Length[list1[[w]] ] < 1] := globalprod[[w]] = Append[globalprod[[w]], 0]; returns the message Part::pspec: Part specification w_ /; Length[list1[[w]]] < 1 is neither an integer nor a list of non-zero integers. After I define prod1, I map it onto a list of integers, so w is in fact a valid part specification..... As a matter of fact, I seem to be having a lot of problems with conditional function definitions in general, so if people have any hints or references, I'd be grateful.... Thanks, Ann Bell