Wolfram Mathematica

2:29 AM

Try out the random story/game premise seed selector!

words = SortBy[
    WordData[#, "ConceptWeight"] & /@
     Cases[Join @@ WordData /@ WordData[], {_,
       "Noun", _}], -#[[1, 2]] &][[;; 10000, 1, 1]];
plots = Import["http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Plots",
    "Data"][[1, 2, 2, 2]];
goals = Import[
    "http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/\
GoalsAndObjectivesIndex", "Data"][[1, 2, 2, 2]];

sample = {WordData[#, "Definitions"] & /@ RandomSample[words, 4],
   Hyperlink[#,
      "http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/" <>
       StringReplace[#, Except@LetterCharacter -> ""]] & /@
    RandomSample[plots~Join~goals, 2]};
Column[Append[
    Row[{Column[First@#, {Center, Bottom}, Frame -> All,
         Background -> {LightGray}, ItemStyle -> {Bold},
         ItemSize -> 15], " ", Pane[Last@#, 300]}] & @@@ First@#,
    Item[Row[Last@#, "|"], Alignment -> Center]],
   Frame -> All] &@sample

I think it has too many abstract words right now maybe.

seismatica

this is probably a stupid question (I'm not a programmer) but why can't programs be coded primarily in postfix notation? I just find f[x]//g[#,h]& much more readable than g[f[x],h].

Michael Hale

2:52 AM

@seismatica I think about // a lot because some people have told me they think Mathematica has too many brackets/braces and it reminds people more of procedural programming they might be more used to. I definitely use //. In my notebook now I have a ... // Tally // SortBy@Last // Reverse

Just because I thought of it as sending some data through a pipeline and it was easy to write that way.

With UI stuff though for example, I definitely don't think of constructing UI as a pipeline. I think of it more as a declarative, nested structure.

And if you are trying to use postfix for something with two arguments it can get cumbersome. f[x] // {#, g[y]}& // h@@#&. I think h[f[x],g[y]] is much easier to read. That's a short example though. With large nested expressions I'm getting better at mentally parsing the auto-indentation the notebooks provide. I also use triple-click a lot to speed up parsing new code I'm reading.

I've thought about it might be cool if hovering the mouse over an expression head would lightly shade the background of the arguments different colors. Sort of like brace matching highlights but to quickly find where the commas are that separate arguments.

seismatica

I see your point, though I think f[x]//h[#,g[y]] could be used. I used % a lot to work out my program piece by piece but that got annoying real fast as the % is bound only to the latest evaluation. As a result I've been using // coupled with # to replace % more and more. I just don't know if that's a bad habit that's gonna bite me later.

I agree that would be a very nice idea. I really appreciate your insight.

And I should be using triple click more often.

Michael Hale

@seismatica You can use %n to refer to a specific output over multiple evaluations. I do that a lot.

seismatica

oh yeah I forgot about that! thanks for the tip.

belisarius

5:31 AM

@Pickett Hi!

@PatoCriollo That was cruel

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