Re: Suggestions on how to use standard engineering symbols
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg104133] Re: Suggestions on how to use standard engineering symbols
- From: Hannes Kessler <HannesKessler at hushmail.com>
- Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:53:53 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <200910180922.FAA16997@smc.vnet.net> <hbhhgg$21d$1@smc.vnet.net>
On 19 Okt., 13:11, Leonid Shifrin <lsh... at gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Nasser, > > honestly, I would just use different symbols anyway, since messing with > symbol names coinciding with System symbols can bring more harm than good. > However, in case you really want to do it, here are few possibilities that > come to my mind. > > If you are concerned about how your *input* code looks visually, one "quick > and dirty" method is to take those pieces of code where you have conflicting > symbols and wrap them in a Module, or better yet With (if symbol's values > are not going to change), (but never use Block for this purpose!) declaring > local symbols with the same names - like Module[{E=..., I =...,...},code] or > With[{E=..., I =...,...},code]. In this case, the global symbols will be > shadowed by local definitions. This option may be appropriate if you need to > assign (Own)values to the symbols in question (this refers to Module) - that > is, if you want to store some values in them. The advantage of this method > is that syntax coloring will always tell you whether or not you really > localized your symbol. It should be clear however that you won't be able to > refer to the original system symbols with the same names, within this code. > Also, the bindings are local to Module or With, so if you have some code > scattered across a notebook, you will have to wrap all relevant pieces in a > Module or With and keep all these Module or With constructs in sync. > > OTOH, if all you care about is the way the *output* looks, and you don't > need to store any values in the symbols of interest, then another option is > to define formatting rules for the output, something like this: > > Format[youngModule] := "E" > > In this case, while you will be using <youngModule>, in the output it will > look like E. > > It is certainly possible (although does not seem to be easy to implement > reliably) to produce a more sophisticated general solution to this problem, > based for example on working in a different context and/or writing a > $PreRead - based custom preprocessor. Perhaps this problem has been > addressed before and others will suggest something nicer and simpler. > > Regards, > Leonid > > On Sun, Oct 18, 2009 at 2:22 AM, Nasser M. Abbasi <n... at 12000.org> wrote: > > > Hello > > > This is a problem I am sure all of us had. > > > It would be nice to use the same standard engineering/physics > > symbols/letters found in textbook to write the equations in mathematica. > > > But some/many of those symbols conflict with existing Mathemtica symbols. > > For example, Young modulus is always written as E, but E in mathematica is > > reserved to the exponential constant, and I would like to use I (upper case > > I) to mean the moment of inertia, and not have it conflict with complex > > number I. And many other examples. > > > I was wondering if there is a way to still use these letters in my > > equations > > but not conflict with Mathematica's? > > > I thought may be I could make a bold versions of these letters with a new > > code, or find latine characters which "looks like" these from the palette, > > but have different ASCII code. > > > Or may be I could tell mathematica somehow to "undefine" these symbols > > during some computation and restore them again, so it will not interpret > > them as its own standard symbols only during this computation, but was not > > sure if this is a good idea? (would this will cause a problem internally to > > Mathematica as it could very well use these symbols in its own package > > code. > > I could always use Exp[] instead of E and use Sqrt[-1] instead of "I" when > > I > > really mean to use the Mathematica letters and leave E and I etc... for my > > use. > > > Any other ideas others have on this subject? I'd really like to write the > > equations as they appear in the textbook if possible and not have to rename > > standard engineering letters to something else. > > > --Nasser Hello Nasser, not a general solution, but to use E or I as your own symbols, you can include them between escape keys, typing <escape>E<escape> or <Escape>I<Escape>. Typing simply E and I still refers to the builtin symbols. For longer Mathematica symbols you could type immediately after the symbols <escape>bv<escape> which appends the small breve character and thus makes a new symbol. Best regards, Hannes Kessler
- References:
- Suggestions on how to use standard engineering symbols in Mathematica which conflict with Mathematica own symbols?
- From: "Nasser M. Abbasi" <nma@12000.org>
- Suggestions on how to use standard engineering symbols in Mathematica which conflict with Mathematica own symbols?