Re : Unpredictability (was (Re: Unevaluated, Plus and Times (was Re: Mathematica language issues))
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg53177] Re : Unpredictability (was (Re: Unevaluated, Plus and Times (was Re: Mathematica language issues))
- From: Jean-Michel Collard <jmcollard at free.fr>
- Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 06:30:17 -0500 (EST)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
About Mathematica language issues and predictability : i=5 Print[++i * ++i] will always return 42 as Print[++i * i++] will always return 36. And it's predictable and will always return these values. In ISO C9x a construction like : int i=5; printf("%d",++i * ++i); is unpredictable. It may return 0 , -45621245 or even 42 ! Such a construction is not forbidden but inpredictable (cf C99 Rationale V5.10). I think in Mathematica it shoudln't be allowed at all. Of course who wants to Print[++i * i--] ? Jean-Michel Fred Simons wrote: > The discussion on the behaviour of Unevaluated in cases where it should not > be used lasts already for a long time. Though irrelevant there are some > interesting aspects in it. The general behaviour of Unevaluated has been > explained by Andrzej Kozlowsky. Let me reformulate it very short and > therefore inaccurate: when during the evaluation process the expression > changes, the arguments that originally were wrapped in Unevaluated are not > rewrapped. It is very important to note that changes only due to attributes > do not count as an change. > > Examples have been given to demonstrate that Times and Plus behave > differently. For example the expression Unevaluated[z]+2. Mathematica looks > at z+2. The terms are reordered due to the attribute Orderless so > Mathematica arrives at 2+z. That is the end of the evaluation. The change is > only due to the attributes so we expect rewrapping of Unevaluated, that is > the result 2+Unevaluated[z]. But the outcome is 2+z. > > In my previous mail I tried to explain this behaviour from the fact that the > evaluation of expressions with head Plus or Times is slightly different. > According to Bobby, that explanation was not very clear, so in this mail I > try to do it better. > > There is evidence that as soon as the head Times or Plus of an expression is > recognized, Mathematica does some sort of pre-evaluation of the arguments. > All numerical arguments are multplied or added and the result is placed > befor the other arguments. Only after this pre-evaluation the attributes of > Times and Plus are applied and the evaluation continues. > > I will only consider the function Plus. The pre-evaluation of the arguments > can be seen from the following function preplus, in which the rules used by > Mathematica are 'caught': > > Attributes[preplus]={HoldAllComplete}; > preplus[x___] := Block[{Plus}, plus@@Plus[x]] > > Now we can imitate the evaluation of an expression with head Plus by first > doing the pre-evaluation with the function preplus and then apply Plus to > the result. > > Here are some examples. > > Evaluation of the expression 2+Unevaluated[z] is done in the following way: > > In[12]:= > preplus[2,Unevaluated[z]] > Plus @@ % > > Out[12]= > plus[2,Unevaluated[z]] > Out[13]= > 2+Unevaluated[z] > > The pre-evaluation does not change the arguments, so in the input of Plus > the argument z is still wrapped in Unevaluated. Plus do not change the > expression so at the end the argument z is wrapped in Unevaluated. > > The expression 1+1+Unevaluated[z] gives a different result: > > In[14]:= > preplus[1,1,Unevaluated[z]] > Plus @@ % > > Out[14]= > plus[2,z] > Out[15]= > 2+z > > The pre-evaluation changed the arguments so Unevaluated has completely > disappeared in the input of Plus. > > The expression 2+Unevaluated[z+2]: > > In[16]:= > preplus[2, Unevaluated[z+2]] > Plus @@ % > > Out[16]= > plus[2,Unevaluated[z+2]] > Out[17]= > 4+z > > Here the pre-evaluation has no effect, so after applying the attributes Flat > and Orderless, Plus is called with arguments 2, 2 and z. Plus has no rules > for these combination of argument, so it has to return Plus[2,2, > Unevaluated[z]]. But then the evaluation of course continues: > > In[18]:= > preplus[2, 2, Unevaluated[z]] > Plus @@ % > > Out[18]= > plus[4,z] > Out[19]= > 4+z > > Pre-evaluation of the arguments gives a new set of arguments, so z is no > longer wrapped in Unevaluated, and the outcome is 4+z. > > My conclusion is that the result of all curious examples with head Plus or > Times where some of the arguments supplied with Unevaluated can be predicted > in the way Andrzej has described when one takes into account the > pre-evaluation, as I did in the above examples. > > Fred Simons > Eindhoven Ubiversity of Technology > -- "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- B. Franklin, 1759