I have a set of symbolic algebraic expressions that I'm trying to get some speed into. To illustrate the issue, I'll use a simple form like { k0 X, k1 Y, k1 Z}, where each term is large and complicated. By random walk, I've arrived at a promising form
{ r0 X, r1 Y,r1 Z}/.r0->k0 /.r1->k1
which is faster than the original, but with my particular set of expressions, it turns out that a function is faster:
{#[[1]] X, #[[2]] Y, #[[2]] Z}&@@{k0, k1}
The expressions are large, making substitutions by hand time consuming and error prone, so I set out to replace the k s with a rule like
{k0->#[[1]],k1->#[[2]]}
I was surprised that this wasn't a straightforward operation, k0 being replaced by 1 instead of the intended #[[1]]. I thrashed around for a bit, eventually finding the odd (to me) result that
{#[[1]], #[[2]]}//FullForm
Gives
List[ 1, Part[Slot[1],2]]
Can anyone suggest a way of thinking in which this makes sense? Is there any place in the design for Part[Slot[1],1] ? I worked around it with a hack:
{#[[2]] X, #[[3]] Y, #[[3]] Z}&@@{Null, k0, k1}
which works but is ugly to say nothing of embarrassing.
