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Re: Re: Re: Hiding number cell

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg83948] Re: [mg83915] Re: [mg83888] Re: Hiding number cell
• From: DrMajorBob <drmajorbob at bigfoot.com>
• Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2007 07:12:16 -0500 (EST)
• References: <fj0mes$ib5$1@smc.vnet.net> <25591289.1196778825493.JavaMail.root@m35>
• Reply-to: drmajorbob at bigfoot.com

Unlike you, perhaps, I do not READ code or output in an e-mail -- I  
immediately (if it looks vaguely interesting) paste it into Mathematica  
and run it. Frequently I find the code doesn't do what the post says it  
does, and even more often, I want to modify it and see what happens THEN,  
so this seems a useful strategy.

That frequently means, of course, that I've pasted output cells as well as  
input, so I spend a few seconds deleting them. But even if I don't delete  
them, it usually makes no difference. I usually don't paste interspersed  
textual comments, but sometimes I do, and I have to delete those too.  
Generally they're not in-line with the code (they certainly shouldn't  
be!), so it's not hard to tell what's what. (* I'm not talking about  
Mathematica comments, although I never use those, either. Until now. *)

Deleting In[..] and Out[..] "crap" (as I call it) is slightly more  
tedious... it's usually in-line, and deleting it is mandatory, since the  
code won't run while they are present.

It's true that posts without In and Out may (at times) leave a reader  
wondering which lines are input and which are output (which to delete  
under my strategy described above)... but evaluating them one at a time  
(or all at once) will generally make it clear in seconds. Anyway, I think  
an experienced reader can tell input from output most of the time just by  
looking.

As for knowing in what order you've evaluated things... I evaluate from  
the top down. Strange, I know, but that's just me! If I change anything I  
reevaluate from there down, and if in doubt, I evaluate everything  
(top-down) to that point. One line that, in fact, I often evaluate out of  
order is:

Quit

but then I delete that cell.

Over time I've developed second-nature habits to support the overall  
strategy. As you have done for your own strategy, of course.

Any number of things can cause me to delete an e-mail precipitously... and  
a dozen In/Out instances is frequently one of them.

Nobody out there really needs my help, of course, so... to each his own!

Bobby

On Tue, 04 Dec 2007 03:27:32 -0600, Szabolcs Horvát <szhorvat at gmail.com>  
wrote:

> On Dec 3, 2007 7:56 PM, DrMajorBob <drmajorbob at bigfoot.com> wrote:
>> I never allow In/Out labels (they're hideous in a notebook, more so when
>> posting to the group, and VERY inconvenient for a reader pasting back  
>> into
>> a notebook)...
>
> Well, it is just a matter of taste :-D  It is possible to copy without
> In/Out labels, but I like to include them in MathGroup postings to
> make the posts more readable, and make the distinction between input
> and output cells clear.  I also copy the cells from messages
> one-by-one to see which output was generated from which input.
>
>>
>> And I have noticed no surprises whatsoever, unpleasant or otherwise.
>>
>
> I included that warning only because in the past there were a few
> posts from new users who got confused by the lack of direct
> correspondence between cell contents and kernel state.  If you're more
> organized than me and can keep track of which cells were evaluated in
> what order, than of course there won't be any unpleasant surprises!
> :-) The same goes for TraditionalForm vs StandardForm output.
>
> Cheers,
> Szabolcs
>
>



-- 
DrMajorBob at bigfoot.com