Talk:ToDo/Auto-generate/recognize

How to recognize type & get precise definition

In his mail, David says "from the definition". Does this mean NAME? Will in general be the most difficult to "parse"... but can provide useful information. I'd say,

• the easiest is to look for LINKS to /index/Rec#order... + signature".
  • If the signature is given, then this is part of a potential definition:

check the DATA (starting with the last terms given: initial terms may be "irregular") to see whether it's consistent, and to what extend

• • If the signature is not given but the order is given:

it's still simple to get the coefficients from DATA. Get them from the tail of data, and check whether/to what extend the "rest" (i.e. earlier terms) of DATA agrees.

• • If we have no link to /index/Rec, use other sources below
  • If we have a link to /index/Rec but no mention of order & coefficients, we can still retain this information as an indicator.
• it's also easy to scan FORMULA section (or NAME) for g.f. and/or recurrence formula. But in some cases (factored g.f. not of the simple form P + (Q)/(R), where P,Q,R are simple polynomials in 1 variable with no other parameter) it may be complicated to exploit this in JavaScript.

...(to be continued). In any case, the best is probably to restrict "auto-generation" to cases which can be considered safe (link to /index + signature is there and agrees with DATA to all but initial terms, something in FORMULA or NAME confirms the hypothesis. — MFH 19:54, 16 November 2018 (EST)