On Sep 29, 2009, at 1:44 AM, Jason Grout wrote:
> > Tim Lahey wrote: >> >> >> >> Based upon what I recall about the D notation, that's the derivative >> of f(t) evaluated at t = 0. The f(0) tells where it's evaluated at >> and >> the D[0] indicates that it's the derivative with respect to the first >> argument. I hate the notation and the change to it is why I don't >> really >> use Sage anymore. I find it difficult to parse, and I want notation I >> can use with my committee and supervisor, but I seem to have lost >> that >> argument. >> > > > What about these two patches, awaiting review? Are these going > against > what you want? > > http://trac.sagemath.org/sage_trac/ticket/6756 > This is basically what I want, along with standard partial derivative notation in LaTeX output which isn't covered in that ticket. > http://trac.sagemath.org/sage_trac/ticket/6344 This is basically adding prime notation along with a variant of the D notation. I don't mind using prime (or dot) notation since both are fairly standard, but the rest I'm not particularly a fan. However, even prime notation should only be an option. I see two main problems with the non-standard notation like this ticket or the D notation. a) It's non-standard so it's only useful to someone who knows it making it useless for communication with other people. b) They aren't operators/functions, only notation so they aren't interoperable with other parts of Sage (e.g., with Maxima) which doesn't use that notation. What I dislike most is that this is a highly non-standard notation and is mandatory. At least in Maple, if you work with diff, most of the time you'll get diff back. The main point people raise with the D notation is evaluation at a point when differentiating. In my work, I'm almost always differentiating and then evaluating so their point is moot. I'm not sure how common it is. Even still I would prefer to see partial derivative notation which is explicit about what's happening and make it easier to explain. Cheers, Tim. --- Tim Lahey PhD Candidate, Systems Design Engineering University of Waterloo http://www.linkedin.com/in/timlahey --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-support@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sage-support-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-support URLs: http://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
