Re: New free introductory book on Mathematica programming,
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg96458] Re: [mg96352] New free introductory book on Mathematica programming,
- From: peter <plindsay.0 at gmail.com>
- Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2009 03:07:38 -0500 (EST)
- References: <200902121135.GAA08295@smc.vnet.net>
This is terrific stuff, thank you. Peter 2009/2/12 Leonid Shifrin <lshifr at gmail.com>: > Dear Group, > > This is my first post here, although I have been > a long-term Mathematica user. My field is (more correctly, > was until recently) Theoretical and Mathematical Physics. > > > I have been using Mathematica for about 12 years now, > but only the last 4 as a programmer. Being a Mathematica > enthusiast, I have written an introductory book (well, a > first part of it) on Mathematica programming based on my > own experiences and my compilation of existing literature, > as an expansion of notes-to-self. The motivation was to > minimize frustration of learning Mathematica programming for > someone like myself 4 years ago. > > My experience is that, for a beginner, it is easiest to learn > Mathematica (programming) when it is illustrated with many simple > examples and is as much separated from any field-specific > application as possible. This is what I tried to do in the > book. > > What I had in mind was a pure programming book about Mathematica > language, with no reference to any specific field-related > functionality, with lots of examples being small but complete > projects, less comprehensive than Mathematica book but containing more > substantial programs, easier to read than Roman Maeder's books > (but by no means a substitute), more applied than David Wagner's > (apart from the fact that it is out of print), going a little deeper into > the language core and being somewhat more pragmatic than > Paul Wellin et al (please don't get me wrong - these are all excellent > books), and centered around functional programming layer, main > higher-order functions, idiomatic Mathematica programming and > efficiency. > > An ideal reader for it would be a person who has some Mathematica > experience as a user, needs to write programs more substantial > than a few one-liners, and wants to understand the logic of the > language and ways to program idiomatically, minimize programming > effort and maximize program's efficiency. Parts of the book > (chapters 1-4) can also be useful for more occasional Mathematica > users, and the last chapter may be of some interest to more > experienced users as well. > > > I much hope that the book will be not completely useless and > that I will get some feedback which will help me improve it. If you think > that some material is described inaccurately, or missing, or unnecessary, > or whatever, please let me know! > > The book is available for free from my web site, > > <http://www.mathprogramming-intro.org>, > > and is published under Creative Commons Non-commercial > share-alike License. It is possible to read it online or > download a pdf version. > > > Apart from the book, I have made several tools that I use > myself and that I believe could be of interest to > some Mathematica users. I plan to sumbit them to MathSource > soon, but will appreciate any feedback even before that, > while they are in "alpha". > > All packages are accompanied by Mathematica notebooks with > numerous examples of use and explanations of all package's > features. They have been all tested with v.5.2 and 6.0, > although perhaps my test suits were too thin. The following > packages are currently freely available from the same web site, > <http://www.mathprogramming-intro.org/additional_resources.html>: > > ******************************************************************************************* > > - Cache > > Creates a cached version of a given function and > fetches results of frequent function calls from cache > of a fixed user-defined size. Slower than f[x_]:=f[x]=... > idiom, but you control the size of DownValues list. Can > be useful for functions which are at least minimally > computationally demanding, in unattended computations. > > > - UnsortedOperations > > Reasonably fast functions to do various manipulations > with several lists without sorting, such as mapping > a function on elements of one list being members of > another one, unsorted Union, Intersection, Complement, > etc. This package is an expansion of the last case > study in the last chapter of the book. > > - AttributesOfPureFunctions > > Produces new pure functions at run-time, with the > desired sets of attributes but otherwise the same as > the original ones. Can also "wrap" the "normal" > (DownValue-based) function into a pure function wrapper, > with the pure function sharing with the original all > Attributes that make sense for pure functions. > > - CheckOptions > > For any user-defined (or modified) DownValue-based > option-taking function, which uses the ___?OptionQ to > declare options, adds new definitions that check > options for validity (not just the option name, but > also the option's rhs) and can execute arbitrary user- > defined code upon receiving inappropriate option(s) (such > as returning $Failed, Throw-ing an exception, etc). > The limitations are discussed in :Discussion: > section of the package documentation. > > > > - PackageOptionChecks > > Elevates the functionality of CheckOptions to the level > of the package(context), while retains the control on > the level of individual functions as well. Adds an > easy-to use interface to "protect" package's functions > from inappropriate options. Can work from within the > package of interest, or "externally" (in the latter case > no code modifications for the package itself are needed). > Can be also used for Global` context during interactive > development (before putting functions into a package). > Essentially, allows to "meta-program" the package by > specifying the response actions for each function after > (and independently) of the main function's code, and > gives the user external control over this responding > behavior. Can also be used as a debugging tool. > Limitations are discussed in the :Discussion: section of > the package documentation. > > > - PackageManipulations > > Allows to dynamically reload, clear or remove the > package's context in a way consistent with general > package mechanics in Mathematica. Useful for interactive > package development, especially for larger projects with > many inter-dependent packages. Dynamic re-loader tracks > escaping symbols and (optionally) can automatically > resolve possible shadowing problems occuring before or > during re-loading. > > > - PackageSymbolsDependencies > > > For a given package/context, answers the following > questions: > > 1. Do there exist symbols in other contexts that > depend on symbols in a given one through some global > properties (DownValues etc) > 2. If so, what they are > 3. For a given arbitrary Mathematica expression, what > are the symbols used to build it, and their contexts > 4. Whether or not a given symbol is shadowed > > The package is highly customizable, with its efficiency > depending mainly on how much we know about the set of > possibly dependent symbols. It can be used to analyze > inter-context dependencies in larger projects, and to > discover/monitor modifications that a given package > induces in other contexts (including overloading system > functions). This is also a good practical example of > <PackageOptionChecks> in action, since options here are > protected with PackageOptionChecks. > > > ************************************************************************************* > > If you intend to use any of these, I will be happy, but please read the > disclaimer on my web site. If you find bugs in the packages or in the book, > I will also greatly appreciate if you let me know - please see the > <report_bug> section of my web site. > > > Everybody thanks a lot for attention, > and Best Regards! > > > Leonid Shifrin > > >
- References:
- New free introductory book on Mathematica programming, and a few
- From: Leonid Shifrin <lshifr@gmail.com>
- New free introductory book on Mathematica programming, and a few