From cottrell@wfu.edu Wed Nov 10 15:42:28 2010
From: Allin Cottrell <cottrell@wfu.edu>
To: gretl-devel@gretlml.univpm.it
Subject: Re: [Gretl-devel] really distinguish commands from mere expressions
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2010 15:42:27 -0500
Message-ID: <Pine.A41.4.58.1011101538390.102698@f1n11.sp2net.wfu.edu>
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On Wed, 10 Nov 2010, Sven Schreiber wrote:

> here's a relatively radical suggestion for gretl 2.0, namely to properly
> distinguish statements (=commands) from mere expressions. What do I mean:
>
> Right now, the following
> <script>
> matrix whatever = zeros(2,2)
> whatever
> </script>
> prints the matrix called 'whatever'.
>
> What bugs me is the line with just the matrix name, why should that
> print anything at all, it's not a print command!

Adding To Jack's list of programs that have this behavior: R.

> It seems that right now for most objects it doesn't make much of a
> difference whether you write 'print myobject' or just 'myobject', with
> the important (unique?) exception of list objects. (Reminder for
> non-Allin readers: 'print mylist' prints the contained values of the
> member series, whereas 'mylist' prints the *names* of the member series.)
>
> So to get the member names for list objects I would suggest to replace
> the syntax 'mylist' with:
> 'print mylist --membernames'
> or somesuch.

I wouldn't want to give up

<unadorned name of user-define object> -> print object

But for people who feel queasy about this -- fair enough, there
probably should be a way to print the membership of a list via the
"print" command, as you suggest.

Allin

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From cottrell@wfu.edu Sat Nov 13 09:18:06 2010
From: Allin Cottrell <cottrell@wfu.edu>
To: gretl-devel@gretlml.univpm.it
Subject: Re: [Gretl-devel] really distinguish commands from mere expressions
Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2010 09:18:06 -0500
Message-ID: <Pine.A41.4.58.1011130915520.111050@f1n11.sp2net.wfu.edu>
In-Reply-To: Pine.A41.4.58.1011101538390.102698@f1n11.sp2net.wfu.edu
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On Wed, 10 Nov 2010, Allin Cottrell wrote:

> On Wed, 10 Nov 2010, Sven Schreiber wrote:
> >
> > So to get the member names for list objects I would suggest to replace
> > the syntax 'mylist' with:
> > 'print mylist --membernames'
> > or somesuch.
>
> I wouldn't want to give up
>
> <unadorned name of user-define object> -> print object
>
> But for people who feel queasy about this -- fair enough, there
> probably should be a way to print the membership of a list via the
> "print" command, as you suggest.

Well, for the moment I've documented something that has been there
for a while, analogous to "list listname delete" for deletion of
lists (as such), namely

list listname print

to print the names of the list-members.

Allin


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