Differences

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--- general [2012/03/06 07:58] – [Preferences] gawrilow
+++ general [2019/01/29 21:46] – external edit 127.0.0.1
@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 Here you can find instructions and tips concerning general use practice rather than specific mathematical questions.
-> Please be aware that in rare cases this introduction and other Wiki pages might describe features implemented very recently without explicitly marking them as "new" or "unavailable to broad public".  We apologize for this inconvenience and kindly ask you to have patience till the next polymake release, should you really miss the feature in question.
+> Please be aware that in rare cases this introduction and other Wiki pages might describe features implemented very recently without explicitly marking them as "new" or "available since that and that date".  We apologize for this inconvenience and kindly ask you to download the latest [[perpetualbeta|perpetual beta]] should you really urgently need the feature in question.
 ===== Interactive Shell =====
@@ Line 39: / Line 39: @@
 ===== Most Important Commands =====
-Precisely speaking, polymake commands are quite normal perl functions, either built-in like ''print'' or ''exit'', or specially written for polymake.  As long as you are not concerned about implementation details, you won't feel any difference.  All commands taking arguments may be written in two fashions: with argument list enclosed in parentheses or separated by a blank from the command keyword.  For example:
+Precisely speaking, polymake commands are quite normal perl functions, either built-in ones like ''print'' or ''exit'', or specially written for polymake.  As long as you are not concerned about implementation details, you won't feel any difference.  All commands taking arguments may be written in two fashions: with argument list enclosed in parentheses or separated by a blank from the command keyword.  For example:
 <code>
@@ Line 59: / Line 59: @@
 help 'custom/$history_size';</code>
   -- Keyword search.  You enter ''%%help "WORD";%%'' and get a list of all help topics matching the given word. If there are only few topics matching your input, they will be displayed immediately; if there are many of them, they will be loaded in the history buffer of the interactive shell, so that you can choose the topic of your interest using the regular history navigation (ArrowUp/ArrowDown keys).
-  .. For partial matches, please use regular expressions like ''%%help "POINT.*"%%'';  -- right, it is a perl regular expression and not a unix shell wildcard, therefore this example reads as "word starting with ''POINT''".  Only topic names are matched, no full-text search is performed.
   -- Context-sensitive help.  Having typed in a part of an expression, you press the F1 key.  If the cursor stands within or immediately after a name of a function, method, or property, the corresponding help topic is shown.  For functions and methods, only a brief description listing the order of parameters and options is displayed; to get the full explanation, you must press F1 once again.
+  -- Partial word search.  You enter ''%%apropos "SUBSTRING";%%'' and get all matching headlines.  Paste one of them with your mouse into a ''help'' command.  You can use regular expressions in the search string, e.g. ''%%.*%%'' for an arbitrary substring in the middle of your pattern.  The search is case-insensitive and only involves the item names, no full-text search is performed.
 Finally, you can just enter a bare ''help;'' command and get a //very// brief summary of the page you are currently reading.
-There is also another command searching for the help topics matching the given substring: ''%%apropos "TEXT FRAGMENT";%%''
-It does not involve any sophisticated interaction, but simply dumps all the matching headlines to the screen.
-You can then paste one of them with your mouse into a ''help'' command.
 ==== Handling "big" objects ====
@@ Line 96: / Line 92: @@
 The complete list of commands related to polymake "big" objects can be found in the [[scripting:start#Object|reference part]].
-==== Loading and saving arbitrary data ====
-Apart from the full objects, you can also persistently store arbitrary data structures like matrices or graphs.  There are two commands working with data pieces:
-  $x=load_data("filename");
-  save_data($x, "filename", "description");
-The description is optional; it can be an arbitrary text, even stretching over several lines.
 ==== Switching between applications ====
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     ? ''%%reset_custom $name{key};%%''
     :: restore the default value
-  .. Both commands come into effect immediately, but also mark the variable as changed, so that the new value will also appear in your personal customization file after the session end.  You can also change the custom variables for the rest of current session only, without updating the file -- by a plain assignment.  If you want to change some value temporarily, just to influence the evaluation of the next expression, write a ''local'' keyword in front of the assignment.  (It's not polymake's black magic, just normal perl operator.)
+  .. Both commands come into effect immediately, but also mark the variable as changed, so that the new value will also appear in your personal customization file after the session end.  You can also change the custom variables for the rest of current session only, without updating the file -- by a plain assignment.  If you want to change some value temporarily, just to influence the evaluation of the next expression, write the ''local'' keyword instead of ''set_custom''.  (It's not polymake's black magic, just normal perl operator.)
 ==== Preferences ====
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 polymake comes with a lot of interfaces to [[external_software|third-party software]].  Each interface must be configured before the first use; in the most cases this involves investigations where the required programs and/or configuration files are installed on your machine.  Up to version 2.9.8 polymake used to ask annoying questions about each and every software package regardless of your real interest in it.  Now the automatic configuration is performed silently, and it only tries to find the programs at some standard locations (e.g. by examining your PATH setting).  If this heuristic search fails, the interface is disabled until you intentionally take care of it.  For this purpose, polymake got three new interactive commands dealing with configuration:
-  * ''show_unconfigured;''\\ displays the list of currently disabled interfaces; more precisely, for each interface it prints the name of the rulefile where the interface is defined, together with an optional credit note.  The latter usually contains a brief description of the third-party software and includes a URL to the website where you can download it.  After you have installed the software, you should call ''reconfigure'' with the appropriate rulefile name, to enable the interface.
+  ? ''show_unconfigured;''
-  ** ''%%reconfigure("rulefile");%%''\\ re-runs the auto-configuration routines defined in the rulefile.  This time polymake will ask you questions if the search heuristics fail to find the required programs or a version discrepancy is detected.  Should you change your mind at the last moment, you can response with an empty input, which will effectively disable the interface again.
+  :: display the list of currently disabled interfaces; more precisely, for each interface it prints the name of the rulefile where the interface is defined, together with an optional credit note.  The latter usually contains a brief description of the third-party software and includes a URL to the website where you can download it.  After you have installed the software, you should call ''reconfigure'' with the appropriate rulefile name, to enable the interface.
+  ? ''%%reconfigure("rulefile");%%''
+  :: re-run the auto-configuration routines defined in the rulefile.  This time polymake will ask you questions if the search heuristics fail to find the required programs or a version discrepancy is detected.  Should you change your mind at the last moment, you can response with an empty input, which will effectively disable the interface again.
   .. You can also run this command for an already enabled interface, for example, when some paths to programs have been changed.
-  * ''%%unconfigure("rulefile");%%''\\ forgets the configured settings and disables the interface.  The effect of this command is partially deferred until you quit the interactive session, because the functions loaded from the disabled rulefile can't be deleted in a running process.  You might find this command useful if you, for example, decide to stop using some third-party software and to deinstall it from your computer.  On the other hand, the interface can be re-configured later if needed again.
+  ? ''%%unconfigure("rulefile");%%''
+  :: forget the configured settings and disable the interface.  The effect of this command is partially deferred until you quit the interactive session, because the functions loaded from the disabled rulefile can't be deleted in a running process.  You might find this command useful if you, for example, decide to stop using some third-party software and to deinstall it from your computer.  On the other hand, the interface can always be re-configured later on demand.
-The old bulk configuration mode is still available: starting ''polymake <nowiki>--</nowiki>reconfigure'' is equivalent to applying the ''reconfigure'' commands to each rulefile containing any auto-configuration routines, but without asking questions in the failed cases.
+The old bulk configuration mode is still available: starting ''%%polymake --reconfigure%%'' is equivalent to applying the ''reconfigure'' commands to each rulefile containing any auto-configuration routines, but without asking questions in the failed cases.