Re: Can't use subscripted variables in function definition?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg124119] Re: Can't use subscripted variables in function definition?
- From: Ralph Dratman <ralph.dratman at gmail.com>
- Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2012 05:55:51 -0500 (EST)
- Delivered-to: l-mathgroup@mail-archive0.wolfram.com
- References: <jebngu$1bb$1@smc.vnet.net>
Is this just a discussion about how things look on the screen -- or is there some deeper difference between Mathematica's "array" indices and properly-implemented subscripts? Ralph On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 3:16 AM, Armand Tamzarian <mike.honeychurch at gmail.com> wrote: > 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 > >