Dot in place of prime to denote differentiation

Question

To denote differentiation with respect to time I wish to use overhead dots rather than primes, so that differential expressions will look somewhat like this:

$\quad \quad$ DSolve$[\ddot y[t] + \dot y[t]==0,\,\dot y[0]==0,\,y[0]==1,\,y,\,t]$

I would like to use this notation after the usual $y''[x]$ prime has been reserved to denote differentiation with respect to distance and because I also want to avoid using D, Dt.

Is it at all possible?

Thanks. Somehow I am missing something. Can you please give the lines that I can copy/paste so it appears as above on the last line with dots above the letters? — Narasimham, Jan 26 '15 at 15:04

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 19 '15 at 20:55

Maybe this?

OverDot[f_, n_Integer] := Derivative[n][f]

Mathematica graphics

It really only works for . and \[DoubleDot].

To keep the output from displaying as y'[x], etc., you could define

MakeBoxes[Derivative[n_Integer][f_], form_] /; 1 <= n <= 2 := 
 ToBoxes[HoldForm[OverDot[f, n]], form]

Dot in place of prime to denote differentiation

1 Answers1