Re: Mathematica frustrations...
- To: mathgroup@smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg11703] Re: Mathematica frustrations...
- From: Selwyn Hollis <shollis@peachnet.campus.mci.net>
- Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 18:35:41 -0500
- References: <6cgf9k$sd7@smc.vnet.net> <6d0ah6$2jt@smc.vnet.net> <6esgci$5mf@smc.vnet.net>
Murray Eisenberg wrote: > Carlos A. Felippa (carlos@mars.Colorado.EDU) wrote: > > : The use of % is a legacy from the original In-Out days of interactive > : command languages like Basic or Unix. It makes no sense for a Notebook > : front end. > > In my work and my students' work with Mathematica we find the % and %% > (and occasionally even %n) absolutely indispensable. The % saves one > the aggravation of re-evaluating a cell and the annoyance of > remembering to use Set (or SetDelayed) -- in symbolic = (or := form, of > course) in a cell before evaluating it. The use of % and In[]/Out[] references is sometimes convenient but is very bad programming practice in general. IMHO, students should be strongly discouraged from using them at all. Naming results leads to much more efficient and coherent work. I'm not sure what you mean when you say ``% saves one the aggravation of re-evaluating a cell." It's the other way around. % _causes_ the aggravation of having to re-evaluate cells. > : In fact it might be useful to get rid altogether of the In[ ] and Out[ ] > : that still clutter cell boundaries since the numbers that appear > : therein serve no useful purpose. > > I beg to differ: The numbers are essential in lots of computing that I > and my students do. The simplest, most direct thing one can sometimes > do is go back to an earlier cell and re-evaluate it, after editing it > directly or perhaps after editing and re-evaluating some other cell > with relevant parameters. > > The very idea of removing functionality just because YOU don't use it is > unjustified. As is the idea of removing it because of particular > historical origins. > > -- > Murray Eisenberg Internet: > murray@math.umass.edu > Mathematics & Statistics Dept. Voice: 413-545-2859 (W) > University of Massachusetts 413-549-1020 (H) > Amherst, MA 01003 Fax: 413-545-1801 -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dr. Selwyn Hollis Associate Professor of Mathematics Armstrong Atlantic State University Savannah, GA 31419 USA <http://www.math.armstrong.edu/faculty/hollis/> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~