why are Canadians terrible at writing software?

[Kuciwalker]

Maple is the ****tiest CAS ever, especially compared to Mathematica.

[Asher]

Why are Americans terrible at trolling?

These are great mysteries in life we may never solve.

I'll idly note that no Americans even make a competitive CAS software package. Maple is Canadian, Wolfram is British.

[Asher]

And if you mention MATLAB I automatically win.

[Kuciwalker]

MATLAB isn't a CAS package. And Woflram wrote Mathematica at CalTech.

Maple isn't a competitive CAS package:

> x := 3:
  y := x:
  y;
  x := 4:
  y;

3
3

YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG.

[Asher]

MATLAB isn't a CAS package. And Woflram wrote Mathematica at CalTech.

Maple isn't a competitive CAS package:

> x := 3:
  y := x:
  y;
  x := 4:
  y;

3
3

YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG.

[action=Asher]pauses and listens to the crickets.[/action]

Does somebody want to tell Kuci how basic algebra works, or should I?

[Asher]

Are you expecting the software to always link the values of x and y?

To me, and I don't use CAS projects because I have a real job, that code is exactly right.

You're setting x and y to be 3, printing y (3), changing the value of x (4), then printing y (3) again.

[Kuciwalker]

Are you expecting the software to always link the values of x and y?

To me, and I don't use CAS projects because I have a real job, that code is exactly right.

You're setting x and y to be 3, printing y (3), changing the value of x (4), then printing y (3) again.

Yes, if this were an ordinary programming language, those would be the correct semantics. But in a CAS the meaning "I want this variable to represent this expression" is far more common than "I want this variable to represent this value", when the distinction is important.

[Asher]

Yes, if this were an ordinary programming language, those would be the correct semantics. But in a CAS the meaning "I want this variable to represent this expression" is far more common than "I want this variable to represent this value", when the distinction is important.

Sounds to me like you are not using the software correctly.

Have you tried using the assign() function? I don't know MAPLE so I just googled it.

[Asher]

Looks like you are using programming variables. It follows, then, that they behave as one would expect in a programming language.

Maple variables are names that generally begin with a letter and are followed by up to 498 alphanumeric or underscore characters; case is significant (eg: x is different from X in Maple). Maple distinguishes between two kinds of variables. A Maple programming variable is a variable that you have assigned a result to, generally with an assignment statement:
> x := 2 + 5;

x := 7

> x;

7

The programming variable x now is a label for the result of 2+5.

The other kind of Maple variable is a mathematical variable or an unassigned variable. These exist in the sense of algebraic unknowns, as in the case of:

> z := 2+y;

z := 2 + y

Here, y is a mathematical variable, and z is a programming variable because an expression has been assigned to it. If we now assign a value to y, y becomes a programming variable, and is no longer an algebraic unknown:

> y := 5;

y := 5

> z;

7

[Kuciwalker]

Sounds to me like you are not using the software correctly.

Have you tried using the assign() function? I don't know MAPLE so I just googled it.

The semantics of assign are weird, but don't do this.

I don't doubt that the correct behavior is possible through some mechanism; I'm claiming it out to be the default behavior of the assignment operator given the purpose of the language.

[Kuciwalker]

Looks like you are using programming variables. It follows, then, that they behave as one would expect in a programming language.

Maple variables are names that generally begin with a letter and are followed by up to 498 alphanumeric or underscore characters; case is significant (eg: x is different from X in Maple). Maple distinguishes between two kinds of variables. A Maple programming variable is a variable that you have assigned a result to, generally with an assignment statement:
> x := 2 + 5;

x := 7

> x;

7

The programming variable x now is a label for the result of 2+5.

The other kind of Maple variable is a mathematical variable or an unassigned variable. These exist in the sense of algebraic unknowns, as in the case of:

> z := 2+y;

z := 2 + y

Here, y is a mathematical variable, and z is a programming variable because an expression has been assigned to it. If we now assign a value to y, y becomes a programming variable, and is no longer an algebraic unknown:

> y := 5;

y := 5

> z;

7

Did you see a syntax difference there? The fact that Maple distinguishes at all between these two types is pretty crappy - everything should be a mathematical variable. x is only a" programming variable" because the RHS reduced to a numerical value.

[Asher]

So your problem is not with the writing of the software, but the design of the language the software implements?

[Kuciwalker]

You should hate Maple too, by the way. It's one of those crappy Java programs that looks completely out of place on whatever system you run it.

[Asher]

I hate any and all CAS software. Use proper programming languages.

CAS software is like training wheels for mathematicians. Get your hands dirty, mother****ers.

[Kuciwalker]

So your problem is not with the writing of the software, but the design of the language the software implements?

They are interchangeable, since the language doesn't have any other real implementations and is not, AFAIK, independently specified.

But thank you for finally understanding what "you're doing it wrong" means.