On Sep 22, 2009, at 3:20 PM, x x wrote: > Hi Burcin, > > Thanks for the explanation! > >> "Symbolic ring" is an unfortunate name. It doesn't mean much from the >> "mathematical point of view." It's just where all the symbolic stuff >> live in Sage. Maybe we should call it symbolic parent. > > I agree that the naming is unfortunate. I think it would be a good > idea to add this remark in the documentation. > >> AFAICT, most non mathematician users prefer to work with symbols >> instead of using the algebraic structures directly. > > I hope this idea is not based on Maple and MMA having such symbolic > parents. > In any case i think it should be easy to explain what is happening, > although some users are not aware. > > In your example t=3 is in ZZ_5 and u is a function from ZZ_5 to ZZ_5, > mapping n to 3^n. So although some users may be not aware, they are > actually working over the ring ZZ_5. > > What i do understand is that for example elements in QQBar should be > represented by symbols (sqrt(2) instead of a numerical value 1,... or > pi instead of 3.14... ). > > An computer algebra system should be able to manipulate these symbols, > such that it is mathematically correct in a given algebraic structure. > I think that the output is then both for mathematicians and non > mathematicians better understandable, and such symbolic inputs are > also more human readable.
The problem is that most elements of QQBar can't be represented this way, and even if they can be it's expensive. (Maybe a printing mode would be good..., but "Root of x^5 - x - 1 closest to 1.18... + 1.08...i" is pretty verbose). - Robert --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
