On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 10:20 AM, Jason Bandlow <jband...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Carl Witty wrote: >> On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 2:29 AM, Jason Grout >> <jason-s...@creativetrax.com> wrote: >>> Can't you put both? >>> >>> "Doing substitutions by calling a symbolic expression is deprecated; >>> use EXPR(x=...,y=...) or EXPR.subs(x=..., y=...) instead" >>> >>> Or >>> >>> "Function evaluation of symbolic expressions without specifying >>> variables is deprecated; use EXPR(x=...,y=...), or EXPR.subs(x=..., >>> y=...), or explicitly give the order of variables by using f(x,y)=EXPR; >>> f(xvalue, yvalue)" >> >> Hmm... if I saw one of those messages, probably my first response >> would be to go look up in the documentation what the difference >> between EXPR(x=..., y=...) and EXPR.subs(x=..., y=...) was, followed >> by slight annoyance because I wasted my time once I discovered they >> were the same. But maybe that's just because I'm strange. >> >> That's why I'd rather not put both, anyway. >> >> Carl > > <my 2 cents> > > What about > "Doing substitutions by calling a symbolic expression is deprecated; > use EXPR(x=...,y=...) or equivalently EXPR.subs(x=..., y=...) instead" > ? > > That way people who prefer one idiom over the other will see the one > they like, and hopefully nobody is confused into thinking they are > different.
One more message about why I don't like mentioning both, and then I'll shut up on that topic: "... people who prefer one idiom over the other...": How is our presumed beginning Sage user supposed to choose one over the other, if we can't? Flip a coin? Nick Alexander's point about EXPR(x=...) actually being a call is another reason to not mention both options. That could presumably be fixed with a wording change, but I also have a preference for not including a multi-paragraph essay in the warning message :) Carl --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sage-devel-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URLs: http://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
