On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 1:50 PM, Freddie Witherden <fred...@witherden.org> wrote: > > On Thursday 22 October 2009 01:34:24 Ondrej Certik wrote: >> I would like SymPy Gamma to be a really easy way to start playing with >> sympy, first by typing some expression, get lots of info about it >> (e.g. some nice "input cells" ready to be modified), with links to >> documentation and possibly other sites on the internet etc. Also I >> would like it to be smoothly integrated with the web notebooks (e.g. >> the Sage notebook/codenode/ maybe our own stuff, we'll see -- I don't >> want to implement everything that Sage already has, like code >> inspection etc., on the other hand I really like this essentially zero >> barrier to start computing with sympy, or any other python library) > > I *really* like the idea. I think it will be both a good way to show off the > functionality of SymPy and also to help in getting useful feedback.
Thanks for the feedback. > > A couple of random thought-chunks: > * Wolfram Alpha can handle "integrate x dx" and examples where the explicit > variable to solve for is not present. Usually it is quite good at inferring > what one wants. Shall we look into writing a wrapper around Sympify for this > purpose? Yes, we should definitely do that. I think it will be quite hard to interpret the whole sentences, like wolfram alpha does, but at least things like "integrate sin(x) dx" and similar wouldn't not be that hard to parse, so we should do that for sure. > > * Alpha can often show steps for most calculations. This is sometimes useful > for integration and equation solving. However, it is incompatible with a lot > of the 'behind the scenes' stuff. Should we be interested in providing this > 'education style' functionality? (Interestingly, before Alpha the Ti-89/91 > series of calculators offered this functionality.) With Alpha it works for > some > very complicated integrals. Several people have asked about this, but I think the way sympy does things is not suited for a paper and pencil, e.g. it is very different to what one learns in the calculus class (e.g. both limits and integration are done differently). So this would be quite some work to implement. > > * On a similar theme it can also show alternative forms of trig expressions. I > find this *so* useful, as some of the transformations are often non-intuitive. > What would, API wise, be the best way of asking SymPy functions for > alternative forms. I think by calling rewrite with all kinds of different arguments. Essentially sympy gamma should try lots of different sympy functions and the expression and if it works (e.g. finishes and doesn't raise an exception), it should show it to the user. > > * I am not totally sure about notebook integration -- at least not directly. I > believe it would be great if this drives us to implement functionality needed > by notebooks, but most people use these kind of services for throw-away > calculations. The notebook integration would be optional, e.g. when you click on the input cell. If you don't need it, it should not obstruct in any way. My idea is that you throw some expression or calculation in, sympy gamma does it's best, then you refine it using the notebook (if you want) and then it should allow you to easily copy the resulting python script, so that you can continue in your terminal (or some web notebook). E.g. let's say you throw in a matrix, but you don't remember how to invert it. So you just copy what sympy gamma does and it will get you started quickly. It's like the mpl gallery (http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/gallery.html), except that it would be interactive (thanks to the interactive cells). Ondrej --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sympy" group. To post to this group, send email to sympy@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sympy+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sympy?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
