Macaulay2 / Macaulay2/M2

Documentation of the overall language

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@MichaelABurr is already working on this.

Since May 15, 2020.

Documentation
Dominant language
Macaulay2
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Description

@michaelaburr - Michael Burr suggests additional introductory material about the Macaulay2 language be added to the documentation to make it easier for newcomers, especially for those knowing C:

  • an introductory section about the overall syntactical structure of the language
    • everything is an expression, there are no statements
    • list processing is important; there are also hash tables
    • the class hierarchy is present and important
    • method functions versus compiled functions
    • classes don't own methods, methods for binary operators are stored in the youngest type
    • all objects are on an equal footing (everything has a hash code and can be used
      as a key in a hash table) (everything has a class and a parent)
    • some operators are mathematical and some are oriented toward low-level tasks
  • in the section on classes
    • how to explore existing objects in the system (peek, peek')

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