Variable Types / Discussion

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This is the discussion related to the wiki page Variable Types.

Plan for a structured guide to variable types

DarkerLine 25 Jun 2007 03:13

Rather than the current page of a somewhat miscellaneous nature, I think the various variable types could use a more structured approach. Here's how I'm planning to do it:

• this page would have only a paragraph or so on each variable type, linking to a page specifically for that variable type instead.
• each of those pages would contain a detailed description of the data type, and a link to the commands for it.
• the commands would all have their own page (as opposed to the current sad state of the string commands)
• breadcrumb navigation through all these pages because that's just cool

Suggestions are welcome! I'm going to start with the specific variable type pages, then go on to the command pages, editing this page last - I don't want to remove the useful information here until it's present somewhere else.

Re: Plan for a structured guide to variable types

DarkerLine 25 Jun 2007 04:33

Okay, the pages lists, matrices, and strings are now up. :-)

Re: Plan for a structured guide to variable types

burr 25 Jun 2007 05:54

I think your page hierarchy makes sense, considering how complicated using lists, matrices, and strings can be. Besides, it's just a good idea to separate large pages into smaller pages, so that the reader doesn't get information overload. I'm wondering, though, what you want to do for the rest of the variables?

Re: Plan for a structured guide to variable types

DarkerLine 25 Jun 2007 13:31

I'm going to keep the information on real numbers on this page. But there's also the equation and window variables, zoom variables (which could go under window variables), GDBs, pictures, statistics variables, table variables, and finance variables to consider.

It seems like a good idea to keep them all either on this page or linked to it. But I'm not sure I know what to do about all of them. I think seeing a page with twelve different headings for each variable type could be intimidating, so that's probably not the best solution. Some of these variables could be grouped under one category, too, which might be for the best.

Re: Plan for a structured guide to variable types

burr 25 Jun 2007 20:59

I'm going to keep the information on real numbers on this page. But there's also the equation and window variables, zoom variables (which could go under window variables), GDBs, pictures, statistics variables, table variables, and finance variables to consider.

I agree that listing all the system variables separately would be intimidating to the reader, so how about using these three general variable categories:

• Graphing Variables — includes equation, window, and zoom variables
• Math Variables — includes statistics, table, and finance variables
• Picture Variables — includes GDB# and picture variables

Does this work for you?

Re: Plan for a structured guide to variable types

DarkerLine 30 Jun 2007 19:25

Sounds good.

list entries in output command

symaxian 05 Sep 2007 02:52

is it possible to place a certain list entry into the output command, such as

output(1,«entry X of L1»,"O"

Last edited on 05 Sep 2007 02:53 by symaxian Show more

Re: list entries in output command

burr 05 Sep 2007 05:54

I'm not sure if this is what you are referring to, but you can do something like:

:Output(1,L1(X),"O

You could then use a For( loop to loop through all of the elements of L1 (assuming it doesn't exceed 16):

:For(X,1,dim(L1
:Output(1,L1(X),"O
:End

In fact, you can get really fancy, and use a list for both the X and Y coordinates:

:{1,5,8,2,4,7,3,16,4,10
:For(X,1,dim(Ans),2
:Output(Ans(X),Ans(X+1),sub("OX",1+int(rand),1
:End

Does this answer your question?