Thank you,

Patrick'

Thank you,

Patrick'

Doug, 

Your new code works fine (yes, I can now evaluate something), and the Maple environment looks the same as it did before.  Truth is, however, that I need to learn the difference between a document and a worksheet.  I can see that "Select Document Block" is greyed out (under the Edit menu in the interface), whereas "Select Execution Group" is not; this suggests, I think, that it is a worksheet and not a document that I've pasted the code into.

Is there an easy (and certain) way to tell whether I'm writing code in a worksheet and not a document?  Is one environment more limited in the sense that it does less realtime checking of the code (syntax)?  I do like some visual feedback when coding, but then again, I am OK with writing in a text editor if I have to (or if I really know the language well enough to start with). 

I'll be looking more closely at your code over the next days and weeks.  Thanks again for giving me something to build on!

Patrick

Patrick

Doug, 

Your new code works fine (yes, I can now evaluate something), and the Maple environment looks the same as it did before.  Truth is, however, that I need to learn the difference between a document and a worksheet.  I can see that "Select Document Block" is greyed out (under the Edit menu in the interface), whereas "Select Execution Group" is not; this suggests, I think, that it is a worksheet and not a document that I've pasted the code into.

Is there an easy (and certain) way to tell whether I'm writing code in a worksheet and not a document?  Is one environment more limited in the sense that it does less realtime checking of the code (syntax)?  I do like some visual feedback when coding, but then again, I am OK with writing in a text editor if I have to (or if I really know the language well enough to start with). 

I'll be looking more closely at your code over the next days and weeks.  Thanks again for giving me something to build on!

Patrick

Patrick

Doug,

Thank you (and Robert) for the code, and thanks to everyone for the continuing discussion over my original post.  Unfortunately, it will be some time before I can fully appreciate the content of the ongoing discussion (since I am essentially a novice to Maple programming), although I really am interested in learing much more than I currently know.

Regarding your code, I can get some functionality (i.e., I can get the application window) if I comment-out the line that reads
     uses Maplets[Tools], MathML;    
but, of course, that causes other problems after the application window does appear and I try to evaluate an expression.

I've looked at the help pages for "uses", and I don't see any syntax error in your code, if indeed "Maplets[Tools]" and "MathML" are package (or module) names, yet I'm getting an 
     Error, invalid uses declaration    
message each time I try to run your application.  My feeble attempts at fixing this problem have gotten me nowhere.  I am running Maple 12.0, and I can get other Maplets to run alright.  Can you help?

Regarding the idea about using 1D input (which I assume means "pure text" input with no reassuring intermediate feedback from the interface), well, I'll go that way if I absolutely must, but it's certainly not my preference.  If I were to go that route, I would have to require the students to both: learn the syntax rules for writing in 1D and, ensure that they have recreated EXACTLY their original expression before proceeding to evaluate it (and then evaluate the second expression...since it is their expression-pair that they need to find fault with).  My thought, after working in the entry window of Robert's application for a little while, is that it may be just as easy for the students to learn how to overcome the odd behavior of the WYSIWYG interface that the MathML editor seams to rather whimsically exhibit (since you clearly don't get what you "see"), as it would for them to learn how to manage 2D input (which, if my hunch is right, is input from the keyboard alone that gets at least partially formatted as it's being input--up to words like "sqrt," that is--and then fully formatted into pretty-print when the expression is finally "submitted").   

In any case, I'd like to begin by getting your code to run as intended!

Thanks,
Patrick

Doug,

Thank you (and Robert) for the code, and thanks to everyone for the continuing discussion over my original post.  Unfortunately, it will be some time before I can fully appreciate the content of the ongoing discussion (since I am essentially a novice to Maple programming), although I really am interested in learing much more than I currently know.

Regarding your code, I can get some functionality (i.e., I can get the application window) if I comment-out the line that reads
     uses Maplets[Tools], MathML;    
but, of course, that causes other problems after the application window does appear and I try to evaluate an expression.

I've looked at the help pages for "uses", and I don't see any syntax error in your code, if indeed "Maplets[Tools]" and "MathML" are package (or module) names, yet I'm getting an 
     Error, invalid uses declaration    
message each time I try to run your application.  My feeble attempts at fixing this problem have gotten me nowhere.  I am running Maple 12.0, and I can get other Maplets to run alright.  Can you help?

Regarding the idea about using 1D input (which I assume means "pure text" input with no reassuring intermediate feedback from the interface), well, I'll go that way if I absolutely must, but it's certainly not my preference.  If I were to go that route, I would have to require the students to both: learn the syntax rules for writing in 1D and, ensure that they have recreated EXACTLY their original expression before proceeding to evaluate it (and then evaluate the second expression...since it is their expression-pair that they need to find fault with).  My thought, after working in the entry window of Robert's application for a little while, is that it may be just as easy for the students to learn how to overcome the odd behavior of the WYSIWYG interface that the MathML editor seams to rather whimsically exhibit (since you clearly don't get what you "see"), as it would for them to learn how to manage 2D input (which, if my hunch is right, is input from the keyboard alone that gets at least partially formatted as it's being input--up to words like "sqrt," that is--and then fully formatted into pretty-print when the expression is finally "submitted").   

In any case, I'd like to begin by getting your code to run as intended!

Thanks,
Patrick