[Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index]

Re: Re: Package development

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg62588] Re: [mg62569] Re: Package development
• From: Gerry Flanagan <flanagan at materials-sciences.com>
• Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 04:44:24 -0500 (EST)
• References: <200511280558.AAA18506@smc.vnet.net>
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

I'm surprised by the number of people that say they develop packages 
using the notebook interface as an editor. About once a year I give that 
a try and decide its hopeless. I'm a big fan of using line-breaks, tabs, 
and other pretty-print tricks to add some clarity to the functions. The 
automated features in the notebook are clever, but not good enough for 
something I want to release within the company. So I end up with 
developmental notebooks that feed (copy/paste) a text .m file over time. 
BTW, I like a product called UltraEdit for my programming. It allows me 
to set up a file of Mathematica keywords so that I can use color syntax 
highlighting while editing.
Gerry F.

>On 11/27/05 at 2:41 AM, tt at tt.com wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Now the question. I have written a few packages in the past. More
>>recently, I am always questioning myself to know if I should
>>develop it directly in an ASCII .m file or use the notebook format 
>>and rely on the autosave package feature (initialization cells). I
>>like the idea of  developing the package in the notebook format to
>>have all the formatting features that ease reading, but at the same
>>time, I hate to loose all the comments I put in when the *.m file
>>is created. Of course I could put comments in the input lines of
>>the notebook, but then I am better writing the ASCII file. Also, I
>>could save the notebook as a package through "Save as Special"
>>(that puts all the headers and text in comments, which is not done
>>with the autosave package feature), but this is not an automated
>>way of doing things. I am just seeking opinions from Mathematica
>>power users. Which way do you develop packages?
>>    
>>
>
>
>
>
>  
>

• References:
  • Re: Package development
    • From: Bill Rowe <readnewsciv@earthlink.net>