mathematica scripts (should work like perl and shell scripts)

[Daniel Reeves]

I'd like to be able to create a file like the following:

test.mma:
#!/bin/math -script
a = 2 + 2;
(* do some other stuff... *)
Print[a];
(* do more stuff... *)

then when I make test.mma executable and run it, it should print 4 to
stdout. Nothing else should go to stdout, just what's explicitly written.
This is the way that perl and shell scripts work and it would be very
convenient/nice/powerful for mathematica to work this way too. For
example, you could use mathematica directly as a cgi script.

There are some issues though---things the kernel would have to do
differently when the -script option was specified:
1) allow an input file to be specified as a command line arg
2) ignore the first line of the input file (the #!/bin/math...)
(this is automatic in perl and shell scripts since # is comment)
3) allow a single command to span multiple lines
(a way to do this would be ignore newlines except after semi-colons)
4) not print anything to stdout unless told to
(a stricter version of -batchoutput)

Let me know your thoughts, especially Wolfram developers. Too bad it's
too late for version 4!

Thanks,
Daniel

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Daniel Reeves http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves/

A UNIX saleslady, Lenore,
Enjoys work, but she likes the beach more.
She found a good way
To combine work and play:
She sells C shells by the seashore.

[Paul Abbott]

Daniel Reeves wrote:

> I'd like to be able to create a file like the following:
>
> test.mma:
> #!/bin/math -script
> a = 2 + 2;
> (* do some other stuff... *)
> Print[a];
> (* do more stuff... *)
>
> then when I make test.mma executable and run it, it should print 4 to
> stdout. Nothing else should go to stdout, just what's explicitly written.
> This is the way that perl and shell scripts work and it would be very
> convenient/nice/powerful for mathematica to work this way too. For
> example, you could use mathematica directly as a cgi script.

You should have a look into MathScript <http://www.mathscript.com/>

> There are some issues though---things the kernel would have to do
> differently when the -script option was specified:
> 1) allow an input file to be specified as a command line arg
> 2) ignore the first line of the input file (the #!/bin/math...)
> (this is automatic in perl and shell scripts since # is comment)
> 3) allow a single command to span multiple lines
> (a way to do this would be ignore newlines except after semi-colons)
> 4) not print anything to stdout unless told to
> (a stricter version of -batchoutput)

I'm not sure that I understand exactly what you want. If test.mma
contains the following commands:

a=2+2
b=10!;
a+b

then, running Mathematica in batch mode, only output for the first and
third commands goes to stdout:

# math -batchinput -batchoutput < test.mma

4

3628804

You can get 3) by appending a \ to long line and 4) by appending ;

Cheers,
Paul

____________________________________________________________________
Paul Abbott Phone: +61-8-9380-2734
Department of Physics Fax: +61-8-9380-1014
The University of Western Australia
Nedlands WA 6907 mailto:pa...@physics.uwa.edu.au
AUSTRALIA http://www.physics.uwa.edu.au/~paul

God IS a weakly left-handed dice player
____________________________________________________________________

[P.J. Hinton]

On Mon, 3 May 1999 in article <7gfr4a$6...@smc.vnet.net>, Daniel Reeves
<dre...@eecs.umich.edu> writes:

> I'd like to be able to create a file like the following:
>
> test.mma:
> #!/bin/math -script
> a = 2 + 2;
> (* do some other stuff... *)
> Print[a];
> (* do more stuff... *)
>
> then when I make test.mma executable and run it, it should print 4 to
> stdout. Nothing else should go to stdout, just what's explicitly written.
> This is the way that perl and shell scripts work and it would be very
> convenient/nice/powerful for mathematica to work this way too. For
> example, you could use mathematica directly as a cgi script.
>

> There are some issues though---things the kernel would have to do
> differently when the -script option was specified:
> 1) allow an input file to be specified as a command line arg
> 2) ignore the first line of the input file (the #!/bin/math...)
> (this is automatic in perl and shell scripts since # is comment)
> 3) allow a single command to span multiple lines
> (a way to do this would be ignore newlines except after semi-colons)
> 4) not print anything to stdout unless told to
> (a stricter version of -batchoutput)
>

> Let me know your thoughts, especially Wolfram developers. Too bad it's
> too late for version 4!

You can do something linke this in Mathematica 3 and earlier if you're
working under a Unix shell.

Here is a script input file, which I denote with a file named "test.m":

[cut here]

a = 2 + 2;

Write["stdout", a];
[cut here]

Your parent shell script (what you call "test.mma") would look something
like this:

[cut here]
#!/bin/sh
$topdir=/usr/local/mathematica # path to Mathematica installation.
unsetenv DISPLAY # optional -- needed only if shell has this variable set
math -batchinput -batchoutput < $@
[cut here]

Multiline inputs in test.m are permissible provided that the syntax
satisifes the criteria in Section A.2.10 of _The Mathematica Book_.

FrontEndExecute[FrontEnd`HelpBrowserLookup["MainBook", "A.2.10"]]

--
P.J. Hinton
Mathematica Programming Group pa...@wolfram.com
Wolfram Research, Inc. http://www.wolfram.com/~paulh/
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone.