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Should Pure Functions Require &

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg29723] Should Pure Functions Require &
• From: "Ersek, Ted R" <ErsekTR at navair.navy.mil>
• Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2001 18:43:41 -0400 (EDT)
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

I stated wondering if all would work well if pure functions didn't require &
at the end. I am thinking it would be great if a future version of
Mathematica would make the use of & optional. 

So for example we could use 
  Select[data, #!=0]
instead of 
  Select[data, #!=0&]


and we could use 
   #^2 /@expr
instead of 
   #^2& /@expr

I would want to have pure functions ending with & optional rather than
prohibited for backward compatibility.  Wouldn't life be better if we didn't
have to use &. Is there a reason why my suggestion would not work?

Regards,
  Ted Ersek
  Download Mathematica tips, tricks from
  http://www.verbeia.com/mathematica/tips/Tricks.html