add xkcd function to sage

[Maarten Derickx]

Sage already has an xgcd function but no xkcd function. We should really change that.

[aapitzsch]

Use a python 3 compatible syntax to raise errors

raise RuntimeError("Could not obtain comic data from %s . Maybe you should enable time travel!"%url)

[Maarten Derickx]

Ok, I changed the patch according to your comment.

[Frédéric Chapoton]

Useless. Sage is not the place for that.

[Nils Bruin]

Reassigning a ticket to "won't fix" and giving the positive review by the same person is bad form. I happen to think it's a fun easter egg. Xkcd often does have relevant and highly quotable mathematics-related cartoons.

[Frédéric Chapoton]

Ok.

Sorry for misbehaving.

I still think that this has nothing to do here, and that kids should go and play elsewhere.

[Kiran Kedlaya]

I happen to think there is a valid reason to insert this easter egg: it might earn Sage a mention in a future xkcd comic, which would be excellent marketing. I can even imagine a "Droste effect" where one of the characters uses Sage, mistypes the xgcd command and sees... him/herself.

My one complaint is the use of an NSFW doctest. Surely we can be less immature than that! (This reminds me of the discovery of "B00B135" in some shipped Microsoft code. Not helpful.)

[Karl-Dieter Crisman]

I happen to think there is a valid reason to insert this easter egg: it might earn Sage a mention in a future xkcd comic, which would be excellent marketing. I can even imagine a "Droste effect" where one of the characters uses Sage, mistypes the xgcd command and sees... him/herself.

Given that the author has already been interviewed in Math Horizons, I think this is a definite possibility.

My one complaint is the use of an NSFW doctest. Surely we can be less immature than that! (This reminds me of the discovery of "B00B135" in some shipped Microsoft code. Not helpful.)

Hmm, very good point. Although the specific comic itself is probably one of the greatest ones out there for "pure" math types (though I was amazed at the haters out there for this one). Maybe we can use the ... in the title attribute of the img link? Or do you have a different comic suggestion? I looked a few just now but the rest of the better math-specific ones are (of course) somewhat more sub-discipline specific.

[Karl-Dieter Crisman]

However, let's move it to the correct component :)

[Maarten Derickx]

So this ticket seems that this ticket is getting some attention again. I would like to adres the comments above so that this ticket can get a positive review and get merged.

However before this the question: should this ticket be "won't fix" or should it be given a mile stone again in order to get merged still has to be settled. Right now there only seems to be one person that thinks that this should be "won't fix". So I would say we should give it a mile stone again. But it doesn't feel like good behavior to do that myself as I am the author of this ticket.

[Kiran Kedlaya]

Sorry, I had meant to change the milestone back but I forgot.

[Jeroen Demeyer]

1. Please remove the alt text as requested by Kedlaya.

2. Never use a bare except:, always use except Exception: or even better, catch a specific exception.

3. Can you avoid the finally: file.close() using a with: statement?

[Kiran Kedlaya]

On further reflection, I suppose we should still doctest alt text. Maybe use comic 353 (Python) for that instead?

[git]

Branch pushed to git repo; I updated commit sha1. New commits:

​b78a7aa	Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/develop' into xkcd
​9f39fa1	reviewer comments

[Nils Bruin]

Rebase perhaps? Given that the original doctest was considered unprofessional, perhaps we do not want it to become part of the history of sage?

[aapitzsch]

Replying to nbruin:

Rebase perhaps? Given that the original doctest was considered unprofessional, perhaps we do not want it to become part of the history of sage?

Done.

[Jeroen Demeyer]

New commits:

​dfc8753

Use xkcd comic number from json data

[Travis Scrimshaw]

LGTM (unless it's easy to open a web browser only in the command line a la import antigravity).

[Nathann Cohen]

AT LAST !

Nathann

[Nathann Cohen]

HMmmm... Looks like sending this message erased the "commit" field, but I can't set it back O_o

Nathann

[Karl-Dieter Crisman]

See #23348 as a followup.