My biases are probably based on using mathematica for 17 years, but I like the way it handles numerical vs symbolic computations. So at present, in sage, sin(1) is symbolic, and sin(1.0) is numerical, and this I think is good. What I think is bad is that something like 1.0*sin(1) is not numerical - in mathematica the sin(1) would be forced into a numerical type. I don't know how tricky this would be to implement but it is what I find natural.
-Marshall On Jul 7, 2:39 pm, Robert Bradshaw <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Jul 7, 2007, at 10:44 AM, William Stein wrote: > > > The first is *removing* having predefined symbolic variable > > names. I.e., in SAGE right now the variables a..z and A..Z > > are prdefined at startup to be symbolic variables (except for I > > and e). > > +1 for nothing but e, I, and x defined by default. This has caused me > much more frustration than it has helped. (There should be an easy > way to import all of a-z,A-Z however). > > Ideally, e would be an element of a "lazy real" field, x an element > of ZZ['x'] (if I want to do something quick, having x handy is really > nice, and almost everyone tries to create/factor/integrate a > polynomial the first time they try SAGE), and I an element of the > Gaussian integers. Having to define these every time does get tedious. > > > (2) how annoying it was not having decimal literals be floats by > > default, and > > -1. I've probably given you enough feedback on this matter already... > > > (3) how annoying it was having certain special functions, e.g., > > log, sin, cos, etc., return symbolic values by default > > instead of numerical values. > > I mostly to agree here that sin(1) = 0.841470984807897 is more > useful, but one concern is how one would get the symbolic "sin(1)" if > one wanted it. Regarding (2), would the return value be float? Could > one specify the precision? Would "asin(sqrt(3)/2)" still be pi/3? (I > think so.) What about sqrt? I don't think that behavior should > revert back to a floating point. Maybe have two ways to call the > function/two functions (one symbolic like now, one numeric)? > > - Robert --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URLs: http://sage.scipy.org/sage/ and http://modular.math.washington.edu/sage/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
