[seqfan] Coding and other issues.

[Antti Karttunen]

From: Joerg Arndt <arndt at jjj.de>
Subject: [seqfan] Re: Rant on Maple code
To: Sequence Fanatics Discussion list <seqfan at list.seqfan.eu>
Message-ID: <20090814031245.GA32110 at jjj.de>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

* Robert G. Wilson, v <rgwv at rgwv.com> [Aug 14. 2009 08:47]:
>> SeqFans,
>>
>>  I also try hard to label functions which are useful in several other
sequences
>> with unique descriptive titles. As an example, before Mathematica had as
a built
>> in function, nextPrim[n_]. In this way someone who was following me could
cut and
>> paste this function into their coding and thereby the OEIS would be
internally
>> consistent.
>>
>> Bob.

> I agree with your statements.
> Enforcing routine names would be nice
> but appears impossible to me.

If the function is N -> Z, we have an excellent, unambiguous
naming convention: Axxxxxx, where xxxxxx are six decimal digits
provided by the A-number dispenser.
(Especially if everybody can agree about the starting offset!)

Don't worry if a sequence you submit in this way appears too "dumb" per se.
As long as it is useful for computing something else, and makes
that another sequence more succinct to express, it's good.
And somebody else could use it for some other purpose.
(E.g. I often use Marc LeBrun's and other people's binary
related sequences for my own ends.)
Yes, indeed, lately I have come to view our gradual building
of OEIS as a giant SOFTWARE project, programming of every
useful and/or interesting N -> Z function, preferably in terms
of each other and a few simple transformations.


----

Another matter: from some of the more zealous comments
concerning "futurevalues" Maple code, I expect there will be
bitter battles between "exclusionists" and "inclusionists"
in the future, as with other Wikis like Wikipedia. (However,
as long as Neil keeps the final say of the contents these will not
actually flare up.)

My view: although these futurevalue-oneliners might seem very
dumb, they don't really take much space overall in the entry.
I guess in the future Wiki-version the name of the submitter
and the date could be hidden from the standard view, and could be
shown only when the user moves the mouse cursor over the
formula, thus further reducing the visual space requirements.
And like somebody else said, the formulae can be
sorted from the most to the least useful (or the most obscure).
We could even have this review system of thumbs up and down
so that the users could vote for the relative merits of
the formulae and comments, as well as the whole
entries.


Yours,

Antti Karttunen

PS. Thanks to Neil for expending a lots of energy for making
and improving this fantastic resource, and a meeting-point
("myspace"? ;-) of a global N -> Z culture.