Re: plot error messages are completelly missing
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg116901] Re: plot error messages are completelly missing
- From: Helen Read <readhpr at gmail.com>
- Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2011 03:37:33 -0500 (EST)
- References: <iknsm2$kd1$1@smc.vnet.net>
On 3/3/2011 6:05 AM, john wrote: > Hello, > > Apologies if this isn't the proper way to submit, it seemed to be from > http://smc.vnet.net/MathGroup.html > > This is a late reply on the subject which came up Sep 10 2007! > > Using Mathematica 8 recently, I was working with a complicated function, which > I'd Plot[]ted. None of the results I was getting made sense. Eventually, I > discovered that where the function appeared to be zero in the plot it was > actually imaginary, and everything fell into place. I hadn't considered this > possibility because I've been used to the Plot[] behaviour of version 5.2 (and > previous versions) where error messages reported the function not being real. > > So, I strongly agree with Szabolcs comment that there should be a message for > complex numbers/infinity. Personally, I think error messages should be on by > default. I want to know when things are going wrong, and not be left believing > misleading information. I completely disagree on that. In the old days, something like Plot[{x^2,Sqrt[x]},{x,-5,5}] generated error messages. It was utterly annoying, and served no useful purpose IMHO. I'm very glad those messages are long gone. -- Helen Read University of Vermont