MEP 00 - The Zen of Mathcad

[StuartBruff]

The Bad Idea Fairy was drunkenly wandering through my brain, stomping down the grass with his size 13 boots, singing off-key, scaring the squirrels, and littering the place with ... well, bad ideas.

However, whilst I was pretending to tidy up, I looked at one of those ideas and thought, "Hmm. Maybe he'd stolen that one from his twin brother, the Good Idea Fairy (you can't tell them apart, sometimes)?".

The idea? "Now that Mathcad 11 has introduced Python Scripting, maybe it's time to introduce a Mathcad equivalent of PEP 20?".

Instead of proposing a "Feature Request" or reporting a suspected bug, perhaps we could introduce an MEP (Mathcad Enhancement Proposal)?

Starting with:

MEP 00 – The Zen of Mathcad  

1. >>> Range Variables Are Not Vectors <<<.
2. Think in two dimensions for layout and data.
3. Be like Zathras-- cover all possibilities. Zathras does not want other people being confoosed.
4. Yesterday's friendly hard limits are today's enemies.
5. Beautiful is better than ugly.
6. Explicit is better than implicit.
7. Unless implicit is better.
8. Simple is better than complex.
9. Complex is better than complicated.
10. Flat is better than nested.
11. Except where it isn't.
12. Sparse would be nice.
13. Readability counts.
14. Now is better than never.
15. Although never is often better than *right* now.
16. Functions should work over any data type.
17. Except where there is no meaning.
18. Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
19. Although practicality beats purity.
20. Errors should never pass silently.
21. Unless explicitly silenced.
22. But Exceptions should be Exceptional.
23. In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
24. But see Zen 14.
25. There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.
26. But don't let that stop you doing it another way.
27. You'll probably need to-- this is Mathcad.
28. If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.
29. If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.

30. Yes, vec helps, but >>> Range Variables Are Still Not Vectors <<<.

Zen 4 -- Yes, I'm looking at you, recursion depth limit.  

Zen 2 & Zen 16 -- round, floor, ceil? What were you thinking? Those poor matrices are sobbing in the corner, feeling all neglected.  Shame on you.

(What do you mean, you don't know who Zathras is??? 😲

https://youtu.be/1j-76eLz1hc?t=54)

MEP nn – Suggestions

1. The Empty Array is one honking great idea -- let's implement it! If an empty value is good enough for the string, the array is more than good enough for it.
2. Surrogate Pair characters are one honking great idea -- let's implement them! If surrogate pair characters are good enough for JavaScript, Mathcad is more than good enough for them.
3. Formatted strings are one honking great idea -- let's implement them! If formatted strings are good enough for TeΧ Sensei Donald Knuth, they're good enough for Mathcad.
4. Multidimensional Arrays (MDAs) are one exceptionally honking great idea -- let's implement them! If MDAs are good enough for every other programming language, Mathcad is more than good enough for them.

5. str2sym is one honking great idea -- let's implement it! If str2sym is good enough for Matlab, Mathcad is more than good enough for it.  And let's have sym2str while we're at it!

Here, for example, is Zen 2 influencing MEP 3 and MEP 5:

I don't see why strings shouldn't be 2-dimensional.  If multiple lines are good enough for compressed wood pulp, or even HTML, then surely Mathcad is more than good enough for them?

Thoughts?

Stuart

Shamelessly stolen from:

The Zen of Python (aka The Pythonic Way)

PEP 20 – The Zen of Python

Beautiful is better than ugly.
Explicit is better than implicit.
Simple is better than complex.
Complex is better than complicated.
Flat is better than nested.
Sparse is better than dense.
Readability counts.
Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
Although practicality beats purity.
Errors should never pass silently.
Unless explicitly silenced.
In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.
Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.
Now is better than never.
Although never is often better than *right* now.
If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.
If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!

[StuartBruff]

I'm writing a worksheet based on one of the numbered principles in the Zen of Mathcad.  I thought it might be fitting to use a Japanese word roughly equivalent to "guiding principle" to refer to each item.  For example, for Guiding Principle 2 - Think in two dimensions for layout and data, I'd like to say Genri 2 (原理).  However, I was wondering which Japanese word or phrase might best capture the essence of a guiding principle?  Perhaps one of our Japanese-speaking Community members ( @ttokoro ?) could suggest something suitable?

Stuart

[ttokoro]

I am writing a worksheet based on one of Mathcad's Zen numbered principles. I thought it would be appropriate to use Japanese words that are almost the same as "guiding principles" to refer to each item. For exampleFundamental Principle 2 - Think about layout and data in two dimensionsI would like to say Genri 2 (principle). But which Japanese words and phrases best capture the essence of the guidelines? Perhaps one of the Japanese-speaking community members (@ttokoro?) Can you suggest something suitable?

私はMathcadの禅の番号付き原則の1つに基づいてワークシートを書いています。 「指導原則」とほぼ同じ日本語の単語を使って、各項目を指すのがふさわしいのではないかと思いました。 たとえば、基本原則 2 - レイアウトとデータを 2 次元で考える、玄理2(原理)と言いたいです。 しかし、どの日本語の単語やフレーズが指針の本質を最もよく捉えているのだろうか? おそらく、日本語を話すコミュニティメンバーの1人(@ttokoro?)何か適切なものを提案できますか?

スチュアート

"guiding principles"  ・・・　Mathcad SNS's Translation　基本原則

・・・　Copilot   指導原則   指針

指針 is good. I think.

禅　Zen 

禅とは

禅とは心の別名です。

ひとつの相にこだわらない無相。一処にとどまらない無住。ひとつの思いにかたよらない無念の心境を禅定と呼び、ほとけの心のことです。

私たちの心は、もとより清浄な「ほとけ」であるにも関わらず、他の存在と自分とを違えて、対象化しながら距離と境界を築き、自らの都合や立場を守ろうとする我欲によって、曇りを生じさせてしまいます。

世の中、意のままにならないものですが、正確には我欲のままにならないということです。禅語の「如意」は意の如くと、思いのままになることを言いますが「如意」の「意」は我欲のことではなく、自他の境界と距離を超えた森羅万象に共通するほとけの心のことを指しています。

この「ほとけ」の心の働きには「智慧」と「慈悲」があり、それは認許とも言い換えられます。自分とは違う相手を許し認め、自分とひとつとする「不生不滅・不垢不浄・不増不減」の空の価値観に立つおおらかな心のことです。

自他の距離と境界を越えるには、自分自身を空しくすることです。
禅とは、雀の啼き声を耳にしても障りなく、花の香りの中にあっても妨げにならず一如となれる、そういう自由自在な心のことです。

[StuartBruff]

Excellent.  Thank you very much, Tetsuro.  指針 (Shishin) it is.  I particularly like that an alternative meaning is "compass needle".

Stuart

(I first encountered Zen in Douglas Hofstadter's book, "Gödel, Escher, Bach".  Still worth reading, IMO)