Re: Checking Programming errors; a ?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg36660] Re: Checking Programming errors; a ?
- From: mark at markfisher.net (Mark Fisher)
- Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 02:09:38 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <alub76$nld$1@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
I've enhanced the code for PartialEvaluation (see my post, which I incorrectly attaced to someone else's reply). It is somewhat more flexible now and does more error checking. It finds the rule in DownValues that matches f[args] (allowing for more than one rule in DownValues); it allows the user to specify the position of the "main" CompoundExpression; and it allows the user to specify an expression that gets appended to the truncated CompoundExpression (and hence evaluated and returned). The package is just a bit too large to post here. It can be downloaded from my web site at http://www.markfisher.net/~mefisher/mma/mathematica.html Nevertheless, I can give an outline of the code here (absent the error checking stuff). PartialEvaluation[f[args], n, expr]: (* get the DownValues and "turn them off" *) dv = DownValues[f]; DownValues[f] = {}; (* find the rule that matches *) matches = Position[MatchQ[f[args], #]& /@ dv[[All, 1]], True]; match = dv[[ matches[[1, 1]] ]]; (* find the "main" CompoundExpression *) ppos = Position[match, HoldPattern[CompoundExpression[__]]]; pos = First[Sort[ppos]]; (* extract, truncate, append to, and reinsert it *) held = Extract[match, pos, Hold]; held = ReplacePart[held, Sequence, {1, 0}]; held = Take[held, n]; held = Join[held, Hold[expr]]; held = ReplacePart[Hold[Evaluate[held]], CompoundExpression, {1, 0}]; match = ReplacePart[match, held, pos, 1]; (* apply the modified rule and restore DownValues *) result = f[args] /. match; DownValues[f] = dv; result --Mark Jack Goldberg <jackgold at umich.edu> wrote in message news:<alub76$nld$1 at smc.vnet.net>... > Hi Group: > > I often run into this difficulty: when designing a program, say as a > module, and testing it for various inputs, I get wrong answers. What to > do? I use a method that works for me but may not be the best available. > I want to show my method and then ask a question about how it can be > imporved. (Oh yes, I abandoned Trace a long time ago!) > > myFunction[f_] := Module[ {L1,L2,L3}, > > L1 = ... ; > L2 = ... ; > l3 = ... ; > "final step" > > ] > > To see what went wrong, I use (* *) selectively as follows: > > Stage 1 > > myFunction[f_] := Module[ {L1,L2,L3}, > > L1 = ... (*; > L2 = ... ; > L3 = ... ; > "final step" *) > > ] > > Thus I see if L1 worked as expected. The next step is to put (* after L2 > and see if this works. I continue this til the bitter end and I usually > find my errors. > > My question; The process of moving (* *) step by step through the > program is quite tedious when the code has lots more lines. What I would > like is a "meta-program" which (like FoldList) does this job for me. The > output of this "meta-program" is the list of outputs of each line in the > module, probably best printed as a column. > This sounds like Trace but my problem with Trace is it is terribly > difficult to read. For the not-so-subtle programming I do, the only thing > I need is what expression is returned line by line. > > Any advice? All remarks are appreciated! > > Jack