Function definitions in init.m don't work

Question

I can't get any function defined in $UserBaseDirectory/Kernel/init.m to work. For example:

SinDeg[d_] := Sin[d * Degree]; (* Only line in init.m *)

Output:

SinDeg[90]
(* => SinDeg[90] *)

However when copying the code and executing it inside a Mathematica notebook, it works fine:

SinDeg[d_] := Sin[d * Degree];
SinDeg[90]
(* => 1 *)

The Mathematica front-end can definitely see the function definitions as it displays SinDeg as an autocompletion suggestion, when typing SinD.

I'm using Mathematica 9 Home Edition on OS X.

To eliminate the obvious: you have restarted Mathematica after adding this line to init.m? — Sjoerd C. de Vries, Mar 11 '13 at 23:50
What do you get when you type ?SinDeg directly after Mathematica starts up? — Sjoerd C. de Vries, Mar 12 '13 at 00:42
@SjoerdC.deVries I get this error: Information::notfound: Symbol SinDeg not found. >> — Tyilo, Mar 12 '13 at 00:44
Could you check whether you really have an underscore in your definition in the init.m file? — Sjoerd C. de Vries, Mar 12 '13 at 00:44
Is the notebook you're trying this in completely empty? (I mean the test notebook, not the init.m file) — Sjoerd C. de Vries, Mar 12 '13 at 00:45
While one can not tell from what you have posted, I suspect that you need to set the cell in the init.m file as an initialization cell. — Jagra, Mar 12 '13 at 00:49
@SjoerdC.deVries -- Really, I don't know how you beat me to that. — Jagra, Mar 12 '13 at 00:50
@Jagra It's my lucky night. I'm off to bed now. Only 5 hours of sleep before the alarm will sound... — Sjoerd C. de Vries, Mar 12 '13 at 00:52
@SjoerdC.deVries Didn't work. File contents of the saved init.m was (* ::Package:: *)\n\nSinDeg[d_]:=Sin[d*Degree];, where \n is a newline. — Tyilo, Mar 12 '13 at 00:56
Did you see step 7 in the page I referred to? "choose File > Save and select Mathematica Package from the Save as type popup menu." — Sjoerd C. de Vries, Mar 12 '13 at 01:02
I think this has to do with the Notebook's default context setting in the evaluation menu. Could you try setting this to Global and restarting? — Sjoerd C. de Vries, Mar 12 '13 at 01:06
@SjoerdC.deVries My guess is that this is the case here... A good way to put custom definitions in the init.m would be to use Begin and End to create an "Init`" context and append that context to the context path so that the definitions are available regardless of the notebook's context. (better still, use packages) — rm -rf, Mar 12 '13 at 01:19
@SjoerdC.deVries Setting the default contetxt to Global fixed it, however I would like to have it set to Unique to This Notebook. Is that possible? — Tyilo, Mar 12 '13 at 06:38
@SjoerdC.deVries This seems to explain it: http://mathematica.stackexchange.com/questions/9571/globally-loading-packages-while-using-a-cellgroup-as-the-default-context — Tyilo, Mar 12 '13 at 06:44
@Tyilo See my comment above... use a custom context in your init.m and append it to the context path — rm -rf, Mar 12 '13 at 07:36

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 19 '14 at 16:52

This has to do with the Notebook's default context setting in the evaluation menu. If it isn't set to Global`, the definitions made in init.m are not seen.

As rm-rf says, a good way to put custom definitions in the init.m would be to use Begin and End to create an Init` context and append that context to the context path so that the definitions are available regardless of the notebook's context. (better still, use packages)

Function definitions in init.m don't work

1 Answers1