Re: Can't use subscripted variables in function definition?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg124104] Re: Can't use subscripted variables in function definition?
- From: Armand Tamzarian <mike.honeychurch at gmail.com>
- Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2012 03:16:49 -0500 (EST)
- Delivered-to: l-mathgroup@mail-archive0.wolfram.com
- References: <jebngu$1bb$1@smc.vnet.net>
On Jan 8, 8:26 pm, Bill Rowe <readn... at sbcglobal.net> wrote: > On 1/7/12 at 5:25 AM, c... at comcast.net (Chris Young) wrote: > > >What is the status of subscripted variables in Mathematica now? > > It has not changed in version 8. > > >Can't they finally be used as regular variables? > > Yes, but not by default. You can use subscripted variables like > ordinary variables using the Notation package. However, from my > perspective this is more effort than it is worth. > > >Or is there some workaround so that they can be? This is time-honored, > >very intuitive mathematical notation that should be available, IMO. > > Yes, it would be useful to have subscripted variables fully > integrated into Mathematica. And, that may well happen in some > future version. But for now, it seems to me this is simply one > of the limitations Mathematica has. I recently ported 90 pages of code from a competitor product -- mainly used by engineers -- to Mathematica for someone. The code was heavily subscripted because subscripted variables in the competitor product were pretty easy and essentially worked out of the box the way you would expect without a learning curve or any other issues. The were other reasons to justify the port to Mathematica but it was quite enlightening to see code in which subscripted symbolic variables were so natural and frankly made me wonder why Mathematica is behind the curve on this. Lets hope V9 offers this. Mike