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Re: Why does _+_==2_ (or, why is HoldPattern required

From Alan G Isaac <alan.isaac@gmail.com>
Newsgroups comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica
Subject Re: Why does _+_==2_ (or, why is HoldPattern required
Date 2014-01-22 08:27 +0000
Message-ID <lbnvdk$s39$1@smc.vnet.net> (permalink)
References <20140120085945.0A76D69CD@smc.vnet.net> <20140121034238.GM44705@wolfram.com>
Organization Time-Warner Telecom

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On 1/20/2014 10:42 PM, Itai Seggev wrote:
> MatchQ[x+x, _+_] would return False


That is actually much less surprising to me:
one expects evaluation of the first expression.
What is quite surprising is that `_+_` does
not stand for any+thing, `_*_` does
not stand for any*thing, etc.
(Not unless one uses HoldPattern.)
I do not consider these "edge cases".

As you say, a decision had to be made.
I am just trying to understand the decision.
Your answer that it treats all symbolic expressions
equally is very likely a good answer in the end,
but of course on its own it begs the question.

Thanks,
Alan Isaac

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Re: Why does _+_==2_  (or, why is HoldPattern required Alan G Isaac <alan.isaac@gmail.com> - 2014-01-22 08:27 +0000

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