Re: Some undocumented symbols
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg89529] Re: [mg89493] Some undocumented symbols
- From: Murray Eisenberg <murray at math.umass.edu>
- Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:56:57 -0400 (EDT)
- Organization: Mathematics & Statistics, Univ. of Mass./Amherst
- References: <200806110715.DAA14820@smc.vnet.net>
- Reply-to: murray at math.umass.edu
Some of these semi-documented symbols, e.g., LeftTee, merely provide
notation and seem to have no associated built-in semantics (see
tutorial/OperatorsWithoutBuiltInMeanings).
But others turn out to be really useful. For example, Decimal. The
following neatly aligns columns on the decimal point:
Grid[Partition[{1.23,2.3456,34.5,456.2},1],Alignment->Decimal]
Surprisingly, so does:
Grid[Partition[{1.23,2.3456,34.5,456.2},1],ColumnAlignments->Decimal]
I say "surprisingly" because, even though the output from ?Decimal
mentions ColumnAlignments, but for GridBox, when used with Grid the
option is flagged in red.
Szabolcs Horv=E1t wrote:
> Sometimes one stumbles upon symbols which are useful to end users, but
> are not (or not well) documented in the main documentation. One
> example is PolynomialForm, which I found by accident and which turned
> out to be useful for some people. Another one is ToColor, which I did
> not know about, but was suggested as a solution to a question I posted
> to MathGroup.
>
> So I thought that it would be interesting to do an automatic search
> for potentially useful undocumented symbols. Those System context
> symbols that have a usage message but are not in the main
> documentation are good candidates. A list of these is attached at the
> end of the message (as strings, to prevent evaluation). I used the
> file names in $InstallationDirectory\Documentation\English\System\Refer=
encePages\Symbols
> to determine whether a symbol name is in the docs (of course this is
> not completely reliable)
>
> One might want to filter these further according to the contents of
> the usage message. This can be done like this:
>
> Select[symbolNames,
> ToExpression[#, InputForm,
> Function[s,
> StringFreeQ[
> s::usage, {"is an internal symbol", "is an option",
> "displays as"}], {HoldAll}]] &]
>
> The following command will create a nice clickable table:
>
> Information[Evaluate[Alternatives @@ symbolNames]]
>
> List of symbols:
>
> symbolNames =
> {"Above", "AlgebraicRulesData", "Analytic", "ArgumentCountQ",
> "Below", "BlankForm", "CheckAll", "CoefficientDomain",
> "ColonForm", "Connect", "ConvertToPostScriptPacket",
> "DampingFactor", "Decimal", "DefaultValues",
> "DegreeLexicographic", "DegreeReverseLexicographic",
> "Delimiters", "DifferenceOrder", "DOSTextFormat",
> "DoubleLeftTee", "DoubleRightTee", "DoublyInfinite", "DownTee",
> "DumpGet", "Edit", "EditDefinition", "EditIn",
> "EliminationOrder", "EllipticReducedHalfPeriods", "EndAdd",
> "EqualColumns", "EqualRows", "EquatedTo", "ExactRootIsolation",
> "FileInformation", "FontName", "FontPostScriptName",
> "FormatValues", "FullAxes", "Generic", "GetContext", "Gradient",
> "HashTable", "HeadCompose", "HorizontalForm",
> "IncludeSingularTerm", "Inequality", "InexactNumbers",
> "InputToBoxFormPacket", "InterpolationPoints",
> "InterpretTemplate", "Jacobian", "K", "Launch", "LeftTee",
> "Lexicographic", "LicenseID", "LineForm", "LinkError",
> "LinkFlush", "LinkHost", "LinkMode", "LinkReadHeld",
> "LinkWriteHeld", "Listen", "ListQ", "LongForm", "Loopback",
> "MachineID", "MachineName", "MainSolve", "MakeRules",
> "MatchLocalNameQ", "MaxPoints", "MetaCharacters", "MinRecursion",
> "MinSize", "Mode", "Modular", "MonomialOrder", "MouseButtons",
> "Multiplicity", "NBernoulliB", "NonAssociative",
> "NProductFactors", "NSumTerms", "NValues", "OptionQ",
> "OutputMathEditExpression", "ParameterVariables", "ParentForm",
> "Parenthesize", "Pivoting", "PointForm", "Polynomials",
> "PromptForm", "RationalFunctions", "RawMedium", "RealBlockForm",
> "Reinstall", "Removed", "RepeatedString",
> "ReturnInputFormPacket", "RightTee", "RuleCondition", "RuleForm",
> "SequenceLimit", "ShowGroupOpenCloseIcon", "Socket",
> "SolveDelayed", "SpaceForm", "StringByteCount", "StripBoxes",
> "StripWrapperBoxes", "SubValues", "TextRendering", "ThisLink",
> "ToColor", "TooBig", "TraceAction", "TraceInternal",
> "TraceLevel", "UpTee", "Using", "V2Get", "ValueForm",
> "VerifyConvergence", "VerifySolutions", "VerticalForm",
> "$BoxForms", "$ConditionHold", "$DefaultPath", "$DumpDates",
> "$DumpSupported", "$LicenseProcesses", "$LinkSupported",
> "$MaxLicenseProcesses", "$NetworkLicense", "$OutputForms",
> "$PasswordFile", "$PipeSupported", "$PrintForms",
> "$PrintLiteral", "$ProgramName", "$SuppressInputFormHeads",
> "$TracePattern", "$TracePostAction", "$TracePreAction"}
>
--
Murray Eisenberg murray at math.umass.edu
Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H)
University of Massachusetts 413 545-2859 (W)
710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801
Amherst, MA 01003-9305
- References:
- Some undocumented symbols
- From: "Szabolcs HorvÃt" <szhorvat@gmail.com>
- Some undocumented symbols