Re: Did I trash Mathematica installation? -- CleanSlate caveat
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg94611] Re: Did I trash Mathematica installation? -- CleanSlate caveat
- From: Bill Rowe <readnews at sbcglobal.net>
- Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 06:35:52 -0500 (EST)
On 12/16/08 at 2:33 AM, dmaxwarren at gmail.com (dr DanW) wrote: >On Dec 15, 6:46 am, Bill Rowe <readn... at sbcglobal.net> wrote: >>On 12/14/08 at 7:39 AM, Anthony.J.Mannu... at jpl.nasa.gov (amannuc1) >>wrote: >>>In exploring ways to clear variables in all unprotected contexts, >>>I executed this command: ClearAll["*`*"] >>I assume your goal here was to re-set things to be as they were >>when you first started your session without actually quitting and >>restarting Mathematica. If so, the package CleanSlate that can be >>found at >><http://library.wolfram.com/infocenter/MathSource/4718/> >>is very useful for this purpose. >The CleanSlate package is still part of the standard distribution of >Mathematica, so you don't need to obtain it from MathSource. >CleanSlate is in the /AddOns/ExtraPackages/Utilities folder. I've used this utility for so long, I wasn't sure whether it was part of the standard distribution or not. >However, you need to use CleanSlate with care in version 6 and 7. >CleanSlate can wipe out the Paclet information, which can cause bad >things like a front end crash when you open the Help system. >Loosing several hours of work because you opened a help file >can be >somewhat annoying. <snip> >I have requested a Paclet-safe version of CleanSlate from the >Wolfram developers, but have not heard back. Yes, there is an issue with the PacletManager. The problem is for a reason unknown to me the PacletManager loads after all of the commands in the init.m file execute. I solved this problem by forcing the PacletManager to load before CleanSlate. I did this by putting: <<PacletManager`; <<Utilities`CleanSlate`; SetOptions[CleanSlate,Verbose->False]; in my init.m file as the last three lines. Alternative ways to accomplish the same effect would be to use CleanSlateExcept["PacletManager`"] or to start every session with either <<CleanSlate` or Needs["CleanSlate`"] I dislike these since they reduce the automation and ease of use for CleanSlate