2008/11/2 mabshoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
>
>
>
> On Nov 2, 12:22 pm, "John Cremona" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> 2008/11/2 William Stein <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
>
> <SNIP>
>
>> > OK, let's do that.
>>
>> How much of the problem would go away if the standard startup file had
>> var('a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z')
>> in it? So that var() only had to be used explicitly for longer variable
>> names?
>
> That would not solve the problem. IMHO even pre-declaring x to be
> symbolic is bad since it is inconsistent, but I guess it is a
> compromise. Any "decent" language should require that one has to
> declare variables. I remember a bunch of bugs in MMA where local
> functions assume certain variables and things go wrong when the user
> does something unexpected on the "outside". This obviously has also to
> do with namespaces and so on, but we are using a modern programming
> language and the decision to require symbolic variables to be declared
> is the right one from my point of view. The documentation is probably
> not as outspoken about this as it should be.
I agree, and I did not really mean my alphabetti suggestion to be
taken too seriously.
I cannot remember why we uniquely define 'x', since as everyone agrees
that is an anomaly, but I certainly use it all the time (probably half
my Sage sessions start with K.<a>=NumberField(polnomial_in_x), after
all). My Magma startup file starts
Z:=Integers();
Q:=Rationals();
Qx<x>:=PolynomialRing(Q);
EC:=EllipticCurve;
but I only need the last one in Sage...
John
>
> Obviously there are people who disagree and prefer the more lispy
> model of Maxima/MMA, but Sage is not a clone of either one of those
> systems. Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder :)
>
>> John
>>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Michael
>> > William
> >
>
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