#14270: Remove function call syntax for symbolic expressions
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Reporter: ppurka | Owner: burcin
Type: defect | Status: needs_work
Priority: major | Milestone: sage-5.9
Component: symbolics | Resolution:
Keywords: | Work issues: fix
combinat/tutorial.py
Report Upstream: N/A | Reviewers:
Authors: Punarbasu Purkayastha | Merged in:
Dependencies: | Stopgaps:
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Comment (by ppurka):
Replying to [comment:5 kcrisman]:
> I'd also say that I think the prep tutorial one should still talk about
this at some length, to explain (in the event this is done) ''why'' this
doesn't work, because a lot of people will now and forevermore expect that
it will work.
IMHO, the people who expect this to ''still'' work need to change their
code. It has been in deprecated mode for over four years. That's more than
enough time to change their habit and old code. I think someone hasn't
complained before either because they are complacent or because they don't
use this at all.
While teaching a course with Sage, I remember that we ourselves ran into
this problem with the students. It was annoying and confusing because we
were unaware of the code and how to fix it. We would just ask the students
to ignore those warnings. What would a beginner do after defining `f(x) =
x^2`? The most natural thing would be to do `f(2)` or something similar to
"see" that it can actually evaluate. Now imagine the same with `f = x^2`
and what you get is the deprecation message and then the correct answer.
Second time it is evaluated, there is no deprecation message, so a
beginner will wonder what just happened in the first invocation. It is not
a favorable impression. It gives the impression of a half-done software.
I agree with you that it should be explained in the tutorial that there is
a difference between symbolic functions and symbolic expressions and
python functions.
--
Ticket URL: <http://trac.sagemath.org/sage_trac/ticket/14270#comment:6>
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