# Are there updated notebooks for Gray's Modern Differential Geometry of CURVES and SURFACES with Mathematica?

The most recent notebook I have found for Modern Differential Geometry of CURVES and SURFACES with Mathematica by Alfred Gray, Elsa Abbena, Simon Salamon are here:

http://webmath2.unito.it/paginepersonali/abbena/gray/

They do not work properly under 10.4.0 for Microsoft Windows (64-bit). Some of it is not too hard to fix. But some of the problems are arcane. For example, after fixing the argument list for Arrow[] , and putting "Section" in quotes in Figure 1.1, I get

Syntax::sntxf: "" cannot be followed by "{0,0}, \[Gamma][\[Pi]/6]}]}".

If I copy the code into a new notebook, it works. Not only that, the error message differed if I revert to the original notebook, and make the exact same changes to the code. There are several notebooks, and I would rather not debug each by hand.

Any ideas where I might find updated notebooks, or some way to update the existing notebooks programmatically?

Edit to add: I'm finding that a combination of sledge hammer and duck tape has rendered a couple of the notebooks usable.

That is:

• Revert the Stylesheet to default.
• Select the largest possible cell group and set "Format"->"Word wrapping"->"Wrap at Window Width".
• Copy the Mathematica input code from the existing cells to new Input cells.
• Remove "$<<$GraphicsArrow".
• Wrap all the argument lists in existing Arrow[]s in $\left\{\right\}$.
• Remove ";"'s (semicolons) from the ends of code that is intended to display graphics.
• Remove/replace legacy commands.
• Manually re-enter code that still refuses to cooperate.
• Copy code to a "scratch" Notebook for testing.
• Frequently restart the kernel.
• Occasionally utter profanity.

It would really be nice to see this code updated so that a novice with Mathematica could use it to learn both differential geometry and Mathematica using Gray's wonderful book. I will suggest focusing on function over form, when it comes to the use of Stylesheets.

• I have the same question. Have you had any luck? – Edward Doolittle Aug 30 '19 at 3:40
• Sorry. No progress. Grey's book is still a masterpiece waiting to be realized. I've only gotten through a fraction of it, and have benifitted greatly from the effort. It is still on my list of books that must be read. – Steven Thomas Hatton Sep 10 '19 at 1:45