Re: Complex Default
- Subject: [mg3038] Re: Complex Default
- From: wagner at bullwinkle.cs.Colorado.EDU (Dave Wagner)
- Date: 25 Jan 1996 05:12:53 -0600
- Approved: usenet@wri.com
- Distribution: local
- Newsgroups: wri.mathgroup
- Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
- Sender: mj at wri.com
In article <4e4nd8$6pj at dragonfly.wri.com>, Mark Evans <evans at gte.net> wrote: >The following was a suggestion I sent to Wolfram Research some time ago. >I am curious what other people think of it. > >Mark Evans >evans at gte.net > > >Gentlemen: > >This suggestion relates to the use of complex numbers in Mathematica. > >Mathematica should incorporate a global user setting that shuts off the >implicit assumption that undefined variables are complex numbers. Better yet, I would suggest the introduction of a new attribute, say "Real". Then you could simply SetAttributes[sym, Real] to tell Mathematica that a variable is real. You can thus have your cake and eat it too, because some symbols can be real while others would be assumed to be complex. There's also a precedent for this: the attribute Constant. Constant indicates that all derivatives for a symbol are 0. It is used by Dt. The analogy with what I'm proposing is obvious. Dave Wagner Principia Consulting (303) 786-8371 dbwagner at princon.com http://www.princon.com/princon