Nick wrote: > I use RR(expr) and find it at least as usable as the N[expr] notation > of Mathematica.
and William wrote: >We should learn a lot about how >Mathematica/Maple, etc., work, and why, but then make a _choice_ >for SAGE that is a reasonable trade-off between various options. >Python is flexible enough that individual users can always create >such customizations for themselves. For example, people who like >"N" being "make it numeric" might just put this in their .sage/init.sage >file: I don't have a preference for the name N over the name RR just because this is what Mathematica uses :-) I have been using the numerical_approx method over using RR(expr) mainly because I am trying to emulate the way I found myself using //N in Mathmatica ( I used //N much more than the N[] function). When doing a multi-step calculation, I wanted to keep the results symbolic as much as possible, but I also wanted to take frequent quick peeks at the numerical approximates of these results in order to determine if they were reasonable or not. So, I would place a quick //N at the end of the result I received, take a look at its numerical approximate, and then erase the //N and move to the next step. Since //N is placed at the end of a line, it was easy to put there and easy to erase. I have found myself using numerical_approx() instead of RR() because it is also placed at the end of the line and so is relatively easy to locate the cursor there and add it. With RR(), one has to wrap the code in a function and then unwrap it when finished, which I have found takes more time (and is more error prone) than just having to deal with code that is all at the end of a line. My main complaint with numerical_approx so far is that it is a lot of typing when used for taking quick peeks at the numerical approximate of a symbolic expression. I am thinking that a shorter method name, perhaps .RR() to keep it in sync with the existing RR(expr), would be helpful :-) Ted --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
