[seqfan] Re: metadata for Mathematica code

[Frank Adams-Watters]

To expand on this, it was never intended that all these programs should be compatible without modification. It is expected that a user can rename variables and functions if need be. Unlike most programming environments, terseness is a more important virtue here than having meaningful names.

Also, while a mnemonic function name for the most common sequences is easy enough, I would estimate that this is true for less than 1% of the sequences in the database. Look at how long the typical name field is.

Franklin T. Adams-Watters


-----Original Message-----
From: Neil Sloane <njasloane at gmail.com>
To: Sequence Fanatics Discussion list <seqfan at list.seqfan.eu>
Sent: Thu, Nov 12, 2015 10:13 am
Subject: [seqfan] Re: metadata for Mathematica code


There are 166283 Mathematica programs in the OEIS as of today.
I really don't
think it would be a good idea to try to change them.

It might be OK to make
recommendations about the format of new
Mma programs, but it would be a very bad
idea to attempt to
enforce them.

Rejecting a Mma program because it does not
fit some
arbitrary naming convention is a No-No. Contrary to the spirit
of the
OEIS.

Best regards
Neil

Neil J. A. Sloane, President, OEIS Foundation.
11
South Adelaide Avenue, Highland Park, NJ 08904, USA.
Also Visiting Scientist,
Math. Dept., Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ.
Phone: 732 828 6098; home page:
http://NeilSloane.com
Email: njasloane at gmail.com


On Thu, Nov 12, 2015 at 10:20
AM, Eric Rowland <rowland at lacim.ca> wrote:

> I agree.  It might be a good
long-term goal that all Mathematica code
> should run in the same session
without naming conflicts, and without
> needing to ClearAll["Global`*"].  This
could be solved through a
> combination of localizing variables, standardizing
function names, and
> using pure functions.  It really depends on how much work
we are willing to
> do, and how easy we want it to be for novice users to add
new code.
>
> I don't have a sense of how many people care about this, so I'm
hesitant to
> suggest we should rewrite all the existing code.  But if lots of
people are
> on board, then great, let's do it.
>
> Also, how much code are we
talking about?  I don't have a local version of
> the database, but maybe
someone can determine how many sequences have
> Mathematica code.
>
> Eric
>
>
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