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Re: holding boxes verbatim

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg56245] Re: holding boxes verbatim
• From: "Carl K. Woll" <carlw at u.washington.edu>
• Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 05:30:35 -0400 (EDT)
• Organization: University of Washington
• References: <d42l18$3gf$1@smc.vnet.net>
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

"Chris Chiasson" <chris.chiasson at gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:d42l18$3gf$1 at smc.vnet.net...
> Dear Math Group gurus,
>
> Mathematica is annoying me. I would like some way to type in a two
> dimensional box form (representing an arbitrary expression) and assign
> it to a symbol. I would then like to be able to operate on the
> expression by, for instance:
> 1 printing it
> 2 printing it with some variables' values substitued into it
> 3 and finally evaluating it
>
> Hold and its variants do not do the job because they prevent
> expression evaluation, but I need something that will keep its box
> form exactly as I have typed it.
>
> Please, how does one do this?
>
> A method for doing this is very useful to me because my professors
> like to see the variables substitued into the original (not
> Mathematica reparsed original, but verbatim original) equations.
>
> Thank you for your very valuable time,

An example of the desired behavior would be helpful. At any rate, have you 
tried using HoldForm? For example:

expr = HoldForm[2^(x+1)];
expr
expr /. x->2
ReleaseHold[ expr /. x->2 ]

 x + 1
2
 2 + 1
2
8

I used InputForm instead of a 2D box form for expr for legibility, but using 
a 2D box form for expr won't cause any problems.

If the above is not helpful, please give an example of the behavior you 
desire.

Carl Woll