derivative alias for diff

[robertwb]

For all polynomials and mpolynomials

Component: calculus

Issue created by migration from https://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/753

[sagetrac-dmharvey]

comment:4

arrggh this is a bit of a mess currently. All the types seem to behave differently at the moment. Some standardisation is really needed here, and things pulled back closer to the base classes. Examples:

sage: x = var("x")
sage: type(x)
<class 'sage.calculus.calculus.SymbolicVariable'>
sage: x.diff()
1
sage: x.derivative()
1
sage: x.differentiate()
1

sage: R.<x> = PolynomialRing(ZZ)
sage: x.derivative()
1
sage: x.diff()
[boom]

sage: R.<x> = PolynomialRing(QQ)
sage: x.diff()
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
<type 'exceptions.TypeError'>             Traceback (most recent call last)

/home/dmharvey/<ipython console> in <module>()

<type 'exceptions.TypeError'>: diff() takes at least 2 arguments (1 given)
sage: x.derivative()
1

[sagetrac-dmharvey]

comment:5

Attached patch revamps all derivative functions in sage, and also covers #756 and #1578.

This has been tested (sort of) on 2.10.2.

I'm now going to try against mabshoff's pseudo-2.10.3.rc0.

I'm not sure whether this should be targeted at 2.10.3 or 2.10.4.

[sagetrac-dmharvey]

comment:6

Attachment: derivative.patch.gz

[sagetrac-dmharvey]

comment:7

Attachment: derivative2.patch.gz

I've added an additional file derivative2.patch which incorporates a missing file (derivative.pyx)

[sagetrac-cwitty]

comment:8

Attachment: derivative-reviewer.patch.gz

Looks good to me! "sage -testall" passes, code and doctests look good. I added a patch that changes some indirect doctests to direct doctests, and fixes a 1-character typo.

Apply all three patches.

[mwhansen]

comment:9

All doctests pass for me too.

[sagetrac-mabshoff]

comment:10

Merged all three patches in Sage 2.10.3.rc1