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Re: Assigning part of indexed object

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg119829] Re: Assigning part of indexed object
• From: "Fabrice P. Laussy" <fabrice.laussy at n0spam-gmail.com>
• Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 07:46:43 -0400 (EDT)
• References: <itsjn7$8u7$1@smc.vnet.net> <itv7ve$pbu$1@smc.vnet.net>

Dear all,

Thanks for the solution. Supplemented with Oleksandr Rasputinov's fix:

> Unprotect[Set];
> Set[sym_[[part_]], val_] := sym = ReplacePart[sym, part -> val];
> Protect[Set];

it works splendidly.

In "some elements of Mathematica Design (1992)" [http://goo.gl/nm1tT], 
Stephan Wolfram makes a point where one should resist the temptation to 
design functions to do things that look natural for them to do, as they 
could break dramatically later on.

Here we have a clear case where Set seems it ought to work as redesigned by 
Oleksandr. Is there any reason for this not being the default behaviour?