mathematica scripts (should work like perl and shell scripts)
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg17312] mathematica scripts (should work like perl and shell scripts)
- From: Daniel Reeves <dreeves at eecs.umich.edu>
- Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 23:22:35 -0400
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
I'd like to be able to create a file like the following:
test.mma:
#!/bin/math -script
a = 2 + 2;
(* do some other stuff... *)
Print[a];
(* do more stuff... *)
then when I make test.mma executable and run it, it should print 4 to
stdout. Nothing else should go to stdout, just what's explicitly written.
This is the way that perl and shell scripts work and it would be very
convenient/nice/powerful for mathematica to work this way too. For
example, you could use mathematica directly as a cgi script.
There are some issues though---things the kernel would have to do
differently when the -script option was specified:
1) allow an input file to be specified as a command line arg
2) ignore the first line of the input file (the #!/bin/math...)
(this is automatic in perl and shell scripts since # is comment)
3) allow a single command to span multiple lines
(a way to do this would be ignore newlines except after semi-colons)
4) not print anything to stdout unless told to
(a stricter version of -batchoutput)
Let me know your thoughts, especially Wolfram developers. Too bad it's
too late for version 4!
Thanks,
Daniel
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Daniel Reeves http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves/
A UNIX saleslady, Lenore,
Enjoys work, but she likes the beach more.
She found a good way
To combine work and play:
She sells C shells by the seashore.