@StuartBruff wrote
As an example, look at the if-elseif-else replacement for if-otherwise. if-otherwise certainly needed a rework, as it had ambiguities and could be difficult to interpret. However, it was vertically compact, which its if-elseif-else is not. Moreover, given that one of the much-touted features of Mathcad is its heavy use of mathematical notation, why did we get a programming notation instead of the standard piecewise brace notation (additional to, yes, but)? I've yet to see a mathematical paper use if-elseif-else in place of braces ...
You can get close to brackets thanks to the way Mathcad treats vector dot products:
@Fred_Kohlhepp wrote:
@StuartBruff wrote
As an example, look at the if-elseif-else replacement for if-otherwise. if-otherwise certainly needed a rework, as it had ambiguities and could be difficult to interpret. However, it was vertically compact, which its if-elseif-else is not. Moreover, given that one of the much-touted features of Mathcad is its heavy use of mathematical notation, why did we get a programming notation instead of the standard piecewise brace notation (additional to, yes, but)? I've yet to see a mathematical paper use if-elseif-else in place of braces ...
You can get close to brackets thanks to the way Mathcad treats vector dot products:
You can, but a problem with this approach is that Mathcad evaluates all of the expressions, unlike with a conditional. This means that situations could arise where a value for any of the clauses can lead to an error, even though it is not selected.
In the rather contrived example for function g below, x = 1, implying the second condition is true, so g(1,a,b,c) should, in principle, return ½. Instead, it flags up the divide by zero error in the 3rd expression.
function h has a NaN as one of the expression values. Consequently, the scalar product of expressions and conditions has NaN • 0, which results in a NaN. This is turn gets multiplied by the correct value of 0.5, but 0.5 times NaN = NaN.
And, of course, it may be that each of those expressions takes a long time to evaluate, thus slowing down the function, which can become problematic if the function is used many times (eg, over a large, closely-spaced set of values).
Mathcad Prime Express v7.0 was used in the making of this message. No humans or cute puppies were hurt as a result of creating this message ... although the same cannot be said of the wasp buzzing around my head.
Stuart
I don't mind wasps. I try to think of them as bees with a bad press. 😉
However, we have a nest somewhere in the house and the place is reminding of the title of the book by the (Scottish) author of the Culture series of books. (Anyone familiar with the names of SpaceX's recovery vehicles should know about Minds)
I have determined that wasps are probably amongst the least intelligent of insects. I open windows for them, and they still insist on trying to find a way out through the glass, even to the point of flying past the gap to adjacent panes. I've manually thrown out but a tithe of the creatures, which is why my house is beginning to look like a waspoleum. I actually feel sorry for the poor things ... a feeling not necessarily universally shared in the household.
I wonder if I can design a Mathcad interface to help them navigate better?
Could be a bit of a challenge in Express 7.0 ...
I'll have to free up some space in the basement dungeon laboratory first, though.
Stuart
https://www.3printr.com/how-to-design-a-robotic-wasp-using-3d-modelling-software-3329828/
