Re: Assume you Declare ...
- To: mathgroup at christensen.cybernetics.net
- Subject: [mg203] Re: [mg151] Assume you Declare ...
- From: Richard Mercer <richard at rmercer.wright.edu>
- Date: Mon, 14 Nov 1994 08:40:03 -0500
> Why is it that Mma still does not have any proper
> mechanism for Assuming[a>b] or Declaring[a,Positive] or
> Declaring[{n,m,k},Integer]. For some years ago I wrote
> a package named Declare.m that tries to do it. It was
> partly succesfull, but also became evident that it really
> should be WRI's job because the package could easily
> interfere with the rest of Mma is care is not taken. In
> other words, one should have inside knowledge of Mma in
> order to program a fully working Declare.m, and the kernel
> developers should adopt certain conventions in order to
> keep future versions working in harmony with Declare.
>
> I attended a symbolic algebra workshop recently and it
> became clear that this is the most striking drawback of
> Mathematica.
>
> Pekka
This is a very parochial point of view! The competition for the honor
of "most striking drawback" is intense... I could easily list 10 items
I consider more important; but what else do you expect from a program
that everyone apparently thinks is supposed to do everything, the way they want
it, and right now? It was actually written by a relatively small number of
dedicated and (so I hear) underpaid people, and it's amazing that it does
as much as it does.
Still, it *would* be nice...