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Groups > comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica > #3151

Re: Metastable expressions in Mathematica

From Richard Fateman <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu>
Newsgroups comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica
Subject Re: Metastable expressions in Mathematica
Date 2011-06-17 04:10 +0000
Organization Steven M. Christensen and Associates, Inc and MathTensor, Inc.
Message-ID <itek4d$s7f$1@smc.vnet.net> (permalink)
References <201106141014.GAA06248@smc.vnet.net> <ita4j9$mb1$1@smc.vnet.net>

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On 6/15/2011 4:21 AM, Leonid Shifrin wrote:
> Hi David,
>
> This is a known effect. There is a special command Update, used in such
> cases to force Mathematica to propagate changes like the one you discuss.
>

It is, in some views, an error, to define and implement a programming 
language with a semantics that is not deterministic, but depends on (for 
example) on the page in random access memory on which an expression is 
stored, to tell how it will be evaluated.

Or call Update.

I suspect this "feature" is unique to Mathematica among programming 
languages commercially supported.  The fact that this is "known" to some 
people does not make it harmless. The fact that it almost never affects 
people does not make it harmless either.

RJF


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Thread

Re: Metastable expressions in Mathematica Leonid Shifrin <lshifr@gmail.com> - 2011-06-15 11:21 +0000
  Re: Metastable expressions in Mathematica Richard Fateman <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu> - 2011-06-17 04:10 +0000
    Re: Metastable expressions in Mathematica David Bailey <dave@removedbailey.co.uk> - 2011-06-18 23:55 +0000
  Re: Metastable expressions in Mathematica Daniel Lichtblau <danl@wolfram.com> - 2011-06-18 21:44 +0000

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