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Fw: writing programs

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg13472] Fw: [mg13417] writing programs
• From: "Clemens Frey" <Clemens.Frey at uni-bayreuth.de>
• Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1998 02:33:33 -0400
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

-----Urspr|ngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Clemens Frey <clemens.frey at uni-bayreuth.de> An: John M. Dlugosz
<john at dlugosz.com> Datum: Freitag, 24. Juli 1998 11:13
Betreff: Re: [mg13417] writing programs


>
>Hi John!
>
>What about reading a book first ? (RTFM/RTFFAQ)
>If you want to program, read Maeder.
>
>Try to understand some basic principles about Mathematica before transferring
>this-and -that from other languages into Mathematica. This won't work, at its best,
>it will work badly.
>
>Some basic insights:
>
>- You can program Mathematica in whatever style you want: functional, procedural,
>object-oriented, list-oriented, pattern-matching... but there are BIG
>differences in performance; prefer working on expressions (not lists, as
>lists are expressions) as a whole instead of on their parts (so try to
avoid
>recursive things...)
>- Always remember: You are working on expressions, WHATEVER you do: A list
>is List[...], a=2 is nothing else than Set[a,2]
>- neither ';' nor a blank line are separators like in C. ';' just prevents
>Mathematica from producing output
>- Think about what you are about to do. If you want to define a function,
do
>it. If you want to evaluate the function, do it. But not all at the same
>time. These incremental things (defining and remembering) are nice stuff,
>but it's not at all the point in Mathematica.
>
>Clemens
>
>