Questions tagged [language-design]
for questions about the design of the Mathematica language itself
149 questions
2
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0
answers
193
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Define a constant from a sequence of lower bounds and upper bounds
The thing I want to do seems very fundamental when you're in the mathematical forest of constants, I'm surprised it hasn't been asked yet.
I want to define a constant that is not directly definable by ...
- 129
5
votes
1
answer
205
views
Returning a sequence from a function
Let's say I want to take this plot:
r = 3;
DensityPlot[x^2 + y^2, {x, -r, r}, {y, -r, r}]
and make the x and y limits be returned from some function (maybe because ...
- 55
2
votes
0
answers
98
views
Why do rules not default to local scope? [closed]
Consider the following:
80 //. a_?EvenQ -> a/2
a = 3
80 //. a_?EvenQ -> a/2
which outputs:
5
3
3/2
I think I understand ...
- 131
1
vote
0
answers
244
views
Why is the dot operator not just matrix multiplication?
It seems to me Mathematica does not have an inbuilt matrix multiplication operator. The dot operator fails as such, as is even noted under "Possible Issues" in its documentation it ...
- 111
4
votes
0
answers
111
views
Why does `MakeBoxes` have the HoldAllComplete attribute and ignore it rather than HoldAll?
MakeBoxes has the attribute HoldAllComplete. For a normal function, it would imply that Upvalues should not be taken into account when the expression is evaluated:
<...
7
votes
2
answers
443
views
Why do some functions require its arguments to be in a list while others accept these as a sequence? [closed]
With Midpoint[{{4, -2}, {2, 5}}], the vectors must be in a list.
But with EuclideanDistance[{-2, 2}, {3, -6}], they don't.
These ...
- 599
7
votes
1
answer
290
views
What is the difference between OperatorApplied and CurryApplied?
Reading both OperatorApplied & CurryApplied function documentations seems to indicate that they are essentially the same ...
- 263
2
votes
1
answer
423
views
Separating the Numerator & Denominator
It's been years since I last programmed in Wolfram & for the first few days, I felt like I've been feeling around the dark; now that I've mostly forgotten how to code it.
Again, I could be ...
- 181
4
votes
2
answers
446
views
What should mapping over a number or symbol produce?
I expected it to be an error (i.e., produce an error message), but Map[f,num] is num. Why is this the correct behavior? If it is ...
- 14.1k
1
vote
2
answers
182
views
Please I need help to define a function of two variables (t,x)!
Let's define the following function:
f[t_, x_] = t^2 + t*x*(1 - x)
such that $x \in (0,1)$ and `$t \in (0,0.02)$
The problem is when I want to define the following ...
- 193
4
votes
1
answer
417
views
Differences between minimization functions?
There's more than 20 functions having to do with minimization
...
- 4,293
2
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0
answers
152
views
Why does Plot function have HoldAll attribute?
I had an odd issue where my plot wasn't drawn correctly when I called it via Plot[Join[fs,gs], (*..*)]. However, these two versions worked:
...
- 121
9
votes
0
answers
95
views
Does ArgumentsOptions do anything we couldn't do without it? [closed]
ArgumentsOptions was new in version 12.2. I looked at the application on that page, and it makes code very difficult to understand. What if anything does ArgumentsOptions do for us that we couldn't do ...
- 7,174
50
votes
6
answers
5k
views
How could Wolfram Research increase Wolfram Language adoption?
Introduction
Hello, this is a more general question than is typically asked here. However, I chose to post it here because this seems to be the most active community for Wolfram Language / Mathematica ...
- 1,078
2
votes
0
answers
171
views
Why is ComplexQ not available? [closed]
For names = Names["System`*"]; executing the following returns 200 hits.
...
- 63k