At present the description for functions reads:
Questions about the use and syntax of built-in Mathematica functions
Since virtually all questions fit that description I think I much better usage for the tag is for questions about writing Mathematica functions.
Please up-vote if you agree.
BTW the best online Greek lessons (which are much better and much more effective than any free or non-free Chinese lessons I've ever found despite Chinese being so much more popular) were broadcast by CyBC (Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation) in the 1960s @acl They are available for free with notes here: kypros.org/LearnGreek (in case you have any friends who want to learn)
@acl Yes, that's very unfortunate ... There are some in WMA format on CyBC's site, but they're also difficult to handle: cybc.com.cy/eng/… I have all of them downloaded and converted to MP3 for convenience so I could listen to them while walking, but according to CyBC that is illegal to do (they only allow listening online).
This is so annoying, considering how popular the lessons are and considering that all notes were made by volunteers, not even by CyBC
@Szabolcs presumably the idea is to prevent people form selling them (assuming someone actually thought before slapping some copyright constraint there)
@acl The g is pronounced differently in Dutch depending in which part of the Netherlands you are. I'm from the south where the g is pronounced much softer (less guttural) than in the west. There is also a ch sound in Dutch which is similar to chi.
@All Can you evaluate AbsoluteTime[{"000:03:07.447", {"Hour", ":", "Minute", ":", "Second", ".", "Millisecond"}}], tell me the result, your Mma version and your system locale?
I get 183.447 but @MrWizard gets 3.534364987447000000000000*10^9
@MrWizard All date functions are locale-dependent too ... e.g. some date conversions only seems to work with a US English locale. This computer I'm using is set to Romanian, though it's an English version of Windows
@MrWizard What does AbsoluteTime[{"0", {"Hour"}}] give you?
@MrWizard Okay, how about AbsoluteTime[{"000:03:07.447", {"Hour", ":", "Minute", ":", "Second", ".", "Millisecond"}}] - AbsoluteTime[{"0", {"Hour"}}] then? Does it return the correct result?
funny story about phi and varphi: when I calculate, I use them interchangeably (since for me they are both just phi, I have to try to differentiate, and I don't when I write by hand). Once, that cost a collaborator 3-4 days of work before he came to exasperated because he couldn't reproduce my results: there was an extra leftover term with varphi...
@acl Interesting. :) I tend to use $\phi$ for the golden ratio, and $\varphi$ for things like the totient (EulerPhi[] in Mathematica) and other such functions.
Oh, and also for spherical coordinates too. (I never use $\phi$ as an angle.)
@MrWizard I actually checked if it interprets the time as today or as on 1900 january 1st before posting ... didn't expect the behaviour would differ between versions
I wonder whether it works the other way around, where people who use different alphabets get confused between the typeset a and the written a for example.
@JM I use these bars for all capital letters too. also I add bars perpendicular to the s-curve at the end of each s to distinguish from 5. sometimes I avoid using s because this is tedious...
(you'd think I'd just stop adding bars, but no, I just avoid using s)
My handwritten "r" is based on this style Once one of the students didn't know what that sign was mid-semester even though I always say aloud everything when I write on the blackboard ... (it was basic electrodynamics, full of r-vectors, and the textbook used a special cursive r as well ...)
@Heike Like "blackboard bold"? I don't recall. What stands out was the three different G's for different sorts of Green's functions, and different r's for dummy variables, spatial variables, fixed radii...
@EliLansey I often use second quantized operators with phantom indices (that is, the reader is supposed to work out whether they are creation or destruction operators from context)
although not always on purpose
@Szabolcs Και εγώ! Αλλά γράφω πολύ αργά στα ελληνικά
Please don't! It's a friendly race, let's must mix in anything negative ... and actually I really must be working, so after this I'll log off for a while
I see nothing in the pane. I am sure it must be due to a version difference
@MrWizard In version 8 it seems to scroll below the maximum position when using a large number
@Szabolcs strange indeed as it does work in version 7.
Forgive me for making anything sound negative; it's not. I have been trying really hard to answer questions and I still cannot keep up with you and Lenoid. It just gives me an "itchy trigger finger" to post ASAP, and in some cases sooner. ;-)
When trying to read the definition of already defined (package or built-in) symbols using Information or FullDefinition, the biggest inconvenience is that lots of distracting private context names appear in front of all symbol names.
Currently I am using a little function contextFreeDefinition[]...
What is the English term used for a multidimensional square grid? In 2D it's a square grid, in 3D it's a cubic one. Is there a general mathematical term that can be used for n dimensions?
@halirutan meta.mathematica.stackexchange.com/a/240/12 (I should have deleted the original meta highlighter discussion and let you start a new one so you can get all notifications immediately)
Thanks Eli, in the maths room people suggested to use "rectilinear" or "Cartesian"
@Szabolcs @halirutan You can star (favourite) a post to get updates on edits and new answers even if it isn't yours. The notification is rather non-obtrusive (so that you won't be bombarded with messages if you have several favorites) and you'll have to check your profile page on meta to see if there's a number next to the "favorites" tab
Let's assume that I receive a flag on a comment added to an answer, asking for the removal of said comment because the suggested improvement has been used to update the answer and the comment is now moot. Should I delete this comment?
I would hesitate to do this, as I strongly believe in "credi...
At present the description for functions reads:
Questions about the use and syntax of built-in Mathematica functions
Since virtually all questions fit that description I think I much better usage for the tag is for questions about writing Mathematica functions.
Please up-vote if you agree.
Let's assume that I receive a flag on a comment added to an answer, asking for the removal of said comment because the suggested improvement has been used to update the answer and the comment is now moot. Should I delete this comment?
I would hesitate to do this, as I strongly believe in "credi...
