Ahh, better call it "graduate mode" instead of "pedantic mode", at least in the documentation.
:-) Cheers, gsw On 7 Nov., 21:14, "Georg S. Weber" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi all, > > summarizing ideas and arguments from this thread gives the following > proposal: > > Sage would benefit from the possibility to work in two different > modes, a "classroom mode", and a "pedantic mode". > > In the classroom mode, e.g. symbolic expressions would be callable, > and quite some guessing would happen behind the scene. Since Wolfram > Research is likely to have spent (compared to the other players) most > resources in usability issues, the Sage classroom mode could be > modeled quite closely after what they do. And we will get the same > strange erronuous behaviour in certain cases as they do, and as was > mentioned above (mma mailing lists). Calling non-commutative rings > modules in Sage might just barf and refuse to work in classroom-mode. > > In the pedantic mode, e.g. variables just have to be defined. All the > plot functions might have a considerably more complicated syntax. The > user would have more freedom to exactly tell what he wants Sage to do > for him. But the user also would have now the greater responsibility > inevitably linked to being granted more power. > > As for the details, for the user interface it essentially boils down > to have verbose error messages. E.g. a plot function called in > "pedantic mode", but with "classroom mode" style parameters not just > saying "No", but telling the user "In classroom mode, this would work. > You are in pedantic mode, so you probably want to do <Code Snippet> to > get the same behaviour". > > Technically, alas, this proposal would imply a good deal of work, and > a whole new dimension of complexity. We would need many, many tests > being doubled (one for each of the two modes), to mention only one of > several areas. The Sage project does not seem to have the necessary > developer resources, at least for the near future. > > What do you think? > > Cheers, > gsw --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
