Compatibility woes
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg75986] Compatibility woes
- From: Mark Adler <madler at alumni.caltech.edu>
- Date: Mon, 14 May 2007 03:49:02 -0400 (EDT)
I have been using Mathematica since 1.0. For every new version or update, my previous notebooks have all worked without modification. Not so with Version 6. Of course, the first clue is that Mathematica offers to fix my old notebooks when I load them the first time. Get rid of semicolons after Plot[] and Show[], change Random[] to the new versions, that sort of thing. That's all somewhat annoying, but I suppose tolerable. Then it complains about old packages that, it says, will mess up the new graphics or other functions. So it complains about loading, for example, Graphics`Colors`. If I don't load it, I no longer have DeepSkyBlue, or PaleGreen used as plot line colors. If I do load it, I am allegedly at risk that something else will be screwed up. It can't find Developer`, so how do I get ToPackedArray[]? All in all, I am disturbed that after loading only a few notebooks, I've run into so many incompatibilities. I fear that I've only scratched the surface, and many more are laying in wait. What is the justification for this sudden and flagrant disregard for backward compatibility? Yes, I'm having fun playing with Manipulate[], but I'm wondering if I made a mistake to download the new version. Mark Adler
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