Services & ResourcesWolfram ForumsMathGroup Archive

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

Re: Re: problem with Pick

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg78460] Re: [mg78409] Re: problem with Pick
• From: Andrzej Kozlowski <akoz at mimuw.edu.pl>
• Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2007 06:52:33 -0400 (EDT)
• References: <acbec1a40706230431p4f1db9a9i4320680dda027396@mail.gmail.com> <200707010731.DAA01680@smc.vnet.net>

On 1 Jul 2007, at 16:31, Chris Chiasson wrote:

> On Jun 29, 4:40 am, J=E1nos <janos.l... at yale.edu> wrote:
>> Like barbers who are shaving themselves...  :)
>>
>> J=E1nos
>> P.S.  I am hearing someone turning slowly in his grave....
>>
>> On Jun 28, 2007, at 4:26 AM, DrMajorBob wrote:
>>
>>> That's entirely contrary to the documentation, which says that Pick
>>> "picks
>>> out those ELEMENTS of list for which the corresponding ELEMENT of
>>> sel is
>>> True."
>>
>>> How is a list its own ELEMENT, if English words mean anything?
>>
>>> Bobby
>
> LOL
>
>

Actually, there is nothing at all unusual about barbers shaving 
themselves. I am sure lots of barbers do it. Russell's illustration 
(of a variant of his paradox) was about a barber who "shaved everyone 
in town who did not shave himself". It would take more than all the 
resourcefulness of Figoro, the barber of Seville, to relate this to 
this description of the behaviour of Pick, also taken from the 
documentation:

Pick[list,sel,patt] picks out those  list[[i1,i2,=85]] for which  sel
[[i1,i2,=85]] matches  patt.

Now, this is a pretty straight forward statement which describes 
precisely the behaviour of Pick - but I am afraid it's not likely to 
generate any more feats of philosophical depth and wit.

I do agree that the statement quoted by Bobby can mislead those who 
insist on taking everything at face value but it was only meant as a 
"first order approximation" and it is enough to dig a little deeper 
into the documentation to see that the behaviour of Pick that Chris 
objected to is in fact clearly documented.

Andrzej Kozlowski

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Re: Re: problem with Pick
    • From: János <janos.lobb@yale.edu>

• References:
  • Re: problem with Pick
    • From: Chris Chiasson <chris.chiasson@gmail.com>