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

Re: snippets

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg89708] Re: snippets
• From: David Bailey <dave at Remove_Thisdbailey.co.uk>
• Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 06:41:03 -0400 (EDT)
• References: <g1o8fd$hd4$1@smc.vnet.net> <200806110716.DAA14875@smc.vnet.net> <g2qhe2$8kr$1@smc.vnet.net>

Murray Eisenberg wrote:
> That's a useful tutorial on your blog. Of course the palette shown 
> reflects your own interests and needs.
> 
> But the title "Newbie.nb" for this palette jarred when I saw the For 
> expression on one of the buttons.  In general, it's a bad idea to look 
> right away to For in order to do iteration.  I recommend that "newbies" 
> not even be told about For until all other, more reasonable constructs 
> -- Table, Sum, f@@expr, f/expr, Nest, etc. -- be tried first for fit to 
> the problem.
> 
> In short, when in Mathematica-land, code in the best 
> "Mathematica-speak", not in FORTRAN-speak, C-speak, etc.
> 
> bobeuland at gmail.com wrote:
>> Since nobody answered my question I had to do some digging myself. The
>> best approach I found was to make a custom palette for my snippets.
>> You can see how I've done it at
>>
>> http://bobueland.com/2008/06/10/how-to-create-a-palette/
>>
> 
Murray,

Can I suggest that people should be taught BOTH procedural and 
functional code. This is because procedural code can be very useful for 
messy problems - where the arrays are not going to be processed in a 
nice uniform way. Sure, there will probably be a functional equivalent, 
but it may be quite hard to formulate.

Procedural code also provides a comforting link with C and Fortran 
programming experience - a bit like learning to ice skate by holding on 
to the barrier!

David Bailey
http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Re: snippets
    • From: Murray Eisenberg <murray@math.umass.edu>

• References:
  • Re: snippets
    • From: bobeuland@gmail.com