How can I get a Button to evaluate an expression containing Get?

Question

I have problems making Button evaluate an input like this one:

Button["Load", Get["/Users/simonlausen/Desktop/Input/ex1.mx"]]

I have tried a bunch of things, but haven't found any elegant solution. What to do?

Button has a time-out of 5 seconds. Add the options Method-> "Queued" to remove the time-out. (default is "Preemptive"). It's documented. — andre314, Apr 01 '13 at 22:36
Method -> "Queued" is almost always the answer to questions about buttons that don't work as expected when the button action requiers Mathematica to do something that takes some time. I have posted a list of some of the previous similar question here. This question might be considered a duplicate on any of these. — m_goldberg, Apr 01 '13 at 23:09

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 01 '13 at 22:36

2

I think the answer is that the main link has to evaluate the Get call. Reusing Mr.Wizards test:

Export["testfile.m", "Print[2+2]; f[x_]:=Sin[x]", "String"]
Button["Load", Get["testfile.m"], Method -> "Queued"]

works for me. For an explanation what I mean with main link you could check the chat log. I don't know whether it is good practice to include links of this here.

http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/8608385#8608385

answered Apr 01 '13 at 22:36

halirutan

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Method -> "Queued" does not help with the example I gave. It may help when loading a package takes longer than the time-out, but I'm not sure if that is the problem the OP is having or if it is more akin to this. – Mr.Wizard Apr 01 '13 at 23:15
1

That chat discussion should be part of a canonical answer! Don't we have a question that requires explicitly this? – István Zachar Apr 02 '13 at 14:08

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:55

One can see that the Get operation does work, but simple output is suppressed:

Export["testfile.m", "Print[2+2]; Sin[1]", "String"]

Button["Load", << "testfile.m"]

When the button is clicked 4 is printed, but Sin[1] is not.

This is the same as: Button["Go", Sin[1]] which also does not print when the button is clicked.

If Get is used directly:

<< "testfile.m"

4

Sin[1]

At the moment I cannot recall how to get the plain output printed to the evaluation Notebook.

EDIT: It appears there is no simple way:

Can Button[] generate output without using Print[]?

How can I get a Button to evaluate an expression containing Get?

2 Answers2