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SaveDefinitions considered dangerous

Asked 2011-07-05T08:13:09.630
22

SaveDefinitions is a nice option of Manipulate. It causes Manipulate to store any definitions used for its creation inside the Manipulate panel. A Manipulate made this way can be copied to an empty notebook and will still work on its own. Additionally, your working notebook containing many such Manipulates also doesn't turn into a flurry of pink boxes with printed error messages below it upon opening. Great!

However, all this goodness has its dark side which can bite you real hard if you are not aware of it. I've had this in a notebook I had been working on for a few days, but I present you with a step-by-step toy example scenario which recreates the problem.

In this scenario you want to create a Manipulate showing a plot of a nice wavy function, so you define this (please make a window size like this, this is important):

enter image description here

The definition is nice, so we keep it for the next time and make it an initialization cell. Next we add the Manipulate, and execute it too. 

f[x_] := x^2

Manipulate[
 Plot[n f[x], {x, -3, 3}],
 {n, 1, 4},
 SaveDefinitions -> True
 ]

All works great, the Manipulate really shines, it is a good day.

enter image description here

Just being your paranoid self you check whether the definition is OK:

enter image description here

Yeah, everything still checks out. Fine. But now it occurs to you that a better wavy function would be a sine, so you change the definition, execute, and being paranoid, check:

enter image description here

Everything still fine. You're ready from a day's hard work you save your work and quit. [Quit kernel]

Next day.

wolfram-mathematica mathematica-frontend
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1 Answer

10

Here is an attempt. The idea is to identify symbols with DownValues or some other ...Values inside your manipulated code, and automatically rename them using unique variables / symbols in place of them. The idea here can be executed rather elegantly with the help of cloning symbols functionality, which I find useful from time to time. The function clone below will clone a given symbol, producing a symbol with the same global definitions:

Clear[GlobalProperties];
GlobalProperties[] :=
  {OwnValues, DownValues, SubValues, UpValues, NValues, FormatValues, 
      Options, DefaultValues, Attributes};


Clear[unique];
unique[sym_] :=
 ToExpression[
    ToString[Unique[sym]] <> 
       StringReplace[StringJoin[ToString /@ Date[]], "." :> ""]];


Attributes[clone] = {HoldAll};
clone[s_Symbol, new_Symbol: Null] :=
  With[{clone = If[new === Null, unique[Unevaluated[s]], ClearAll[new]; new],
        sopts = Options[Unevaluated[s]]},
     With[{setProp = (#[clone] = (#[s] /. HoldPattern[s] :> clone)) &},
        Map[setProp, DeleteCases[GlobalProperties[], Options]];
        If[sopts =!= {}, Options[clone] = (sopts /. HoldPattern[s] :> clone)];
        HoldPattern[s] :> clone]]

There are several alternatives of how to implement the function itself. One is to introduce the function with another name, taking the same arguments as Manipulate, say myManipulate. I will use another one: softly overload Manipulate via UpValues of some custom wrapper, that I will introduce. I will call it CloneSymbols. Here is the code:

ClearAll[CloneSymbols];
CloneSymbols /: 
Manipulate[args___,CloneSymbols[sd:(SaveDefinitions->True)],after:OptionsPattern[]]:=
   Unevaluated[Manipulate[args, sd, after]] /.
     Cases[
       Hold[args],
       s_Symbol /; Flatten[{DownValues[s], SubValues[s], UpValues[s]}] =!= {} :>
answered 2011-07-05T09:08:52.163

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