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Re: DOES MATHEMATICA CHANGE THE SYNTAX EACH NEW RELEASE?

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg49254] Re: DOES MATHEMATICA CHANGE THE SYNTAX EACH NEW RELEASE?
  • From: "Alan" <info at optioncity.REMOVETHIS.net>
  • Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2004 02:26:28 -0400 (EDT)
  • References: <ccis29$4ap$1@smc.vnet.net>
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

> Does anyone know if Mathematica does this? Do
> they rearrange things with new releases? very much?
> not much at all?
>
> Just wondering. Thanks.

In my experience, the syntax changes very little over time.

However, Ver. 5.0 introduced at least two changes that
broke a lot of my earlier code:

(1) The syntax for two starting arguments for FindRoot[], FindMinimum[]
and similar root finders changed.
(2) A new evaluation syntax for these same functions was introduced,
the net effect being that you had to force a 'numerical check' on certain
arguments to get earlier code to work. This amounted to a syntax change
because the 'old' syntax, although legal, didn't work any more in many
cases.

Hopefully, these functions will now remain stable for many releases.

regards,
alan



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