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Re: new functional operator

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg125626] Re: new functional operator
• From: Bill Rowe <readnews at sbcglobal.net>
• Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2012 05:52:12 -0500 (EST)
• Delivered-to: l-mathgroup@mail-archive0.wolfram.com

On 3/21/12 at 5:45 AM, noqsiaerospace at gmail.com (John Doty) wrote:

>It isn't clutter in any specific piece of code that's the problem:
>it's all the cluttered documentation. Many of us appreciated the
>wonderful Mathematica book when it existed, but Mathematica has too
>many unnecessary functions these days,

The problem is defining "unnecessary". A function you seldom or
never use might be one I use extensively. You would see this as
unnecessary function but I would see it as an essential function.

>For functions like the one we're discussing, it's much better to define
>it only when needed. Then, those trying to understand code that
>*doesn't* use that function (almost all Mathematica code ever written)
>won't have to waste time looking past it in the documentation.

True, if a function is defined at the time of use, the code
should be more understandable. But this rather defeats the point
of having compact notations you want to use often.