Well, my newest rfricas does indeed have command completion, and resolutely
ignores clef.
As to help, I strongly support Thomas's views. I still find help in FriCAS
- even using mixtures of hyperdoc, the new api web page, and as much
console-based information as possible - scattered and often not helpful
enough. For example, I was trying to find out yesterday how to solve a
second order linear IVP. I can set up the ODE, but I don't know how to
give the values both of y(0) and y'(0) to solve. The only example I could
find was of a first order system.
If you enter )d op solve you find there are 33 exposed operations, including
[6] (D2,D1,Symbol,D1,List(D1)) -> Union(D1,"failed")
from ElementaryFunctionLODESolver(D5,D1,D2)
if D1 has Join(ACFS(D5),TRANFUN,PRIMCAT) and D5 has Join(
COMPAR,EUCDOM,RETRACT(INT),LINEXP(INT),CHARZ) and D2 has
LODOCAT(D1)
which, let's face it, is pretty meaningless unless to an expert user or a
developer.
I think that help should exist in two forms: console based, and web based.
And every function or command should have a complete description, and
copious examples. Since )help is already used maybe we need another system
command, say )about, so that for example ")about solve" gives you a list so
that then ")about solve ode" gives you the help you need. Mind you, I have
no idea how this would be implemented. Would it be possible to pull all
the useful information out of spad files into a new "about" directory?
Enough of a diatribe for the moment.
-Alasdair
On Sat, Oct 31, 2015 at 3:01 AM, Ralf Hemmecke <r...@hemmecke.org> wrote:
> On 10/30/2015 02:49 PM, Thomas Baruchel wrote:
> > I have been using Fricas for about ten days and I really like it.
>
> Good to hear that.
> May I asked you how you've found FriCAS in the first place?
>
> > I have been using rlwrap with many programs for years; actually wrapping
> > any program with rlwrap usually is the first thing I do when installing
> any
> > kind of interpreter. You seem to use it from a script, aren't you (I
> didn't
> > look at your attached file but I assume it is a shell-script wrapper); I
> > usually do the same with a bash alias in my ~/.bashrc, but of course
> result
> > will be the same.
>
> Maybe next to efricas, we should add a start script to fricas that
> automatically uses rlwrap, if it is installed (including command line
> completion). Wouldn't that be an option to get rid of CLEF?
>
> > Two years ago, I wrote a plugin for the Vim editor for interacting with
> > some interpreters from a Vim buffer. I didn't try to use it with Fricas
> > yet, but maybe someone will be interested in
> > it: https://github.com/baruchel/vim-notebook
>
> I've added a link to your vim-notebook.
>
> http://axiom-wiki.newsynthesis.org/FriCASInVim
>
> > There are however two things I don't like with Fricas:
>
> Yes. I like that you tell us things that are not so nice. I call this
> "contribution". Thank you.
>
> > * I couldn't find any way to use the help system (called Hyperdoc if I
> am
> > not wrong) from within the console; obviously Hyperdoc is a graphical
> > system (which I probably didn't compile; anyway I don't want to have an
> > external window).
>
> It's a bit hard, if you want to stay at the command line. Anyway, one
> thing, I can offer is http://fricas.github.io/ and in particular
> http://fricas.github.io/api/. (Note that the search for FriCAS
> identifiers only works on the API page.)
>
> If you really want to stay on the command line, then you should type
>
> )help
>
> Then we have
>
>
> (10) -> )what commands
> --------------- System Commands for User Level: development ---------------
> abbreviations boot cd clear
> close compiler copyright credits
> display edit fin frame
> help history lisp library
> load ltrace nopiles piles
> pquit quit read set
> show spool summary synonym
> system trace undo what
>
>
> >> System error:
> The index 3 is too large.
>
> (Oooops... there's a bug!) :-(
>
> If you want to learn about a domain or category, say something like
>
> (10) -> )show SemiGroup
> SemiGroup is a category constructor
> Abbreviation for SemiGroup is SGROUP
> This constructor is exposed in this frame.
> ------------------------------- Operations --------------------------------
> ?*? : (%,%) -> % ?=? : (%,%) -> Boolean
> ?^? : (%,PositiveInteger) -> % coerce : % -> OutputForm
> hash : % -> SingleInteger latex : % -> String
> ?~=? : (%,%) -> Boolean
> hashUpdate! : (HashState,%) -> HashState
>
> If you want to learn about an operation, then
>
> (10) -> )display operation char
>
> There are 2 exposed functions called char :
> [1] String -> Character from Character
> [2] Integer -> Character from Character
>
> This text based help system is not perfect, and I would even say not
> really actively maintained, but it's still there and usable.
>
> Hope that helps.
> Ralf
>
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