Are configuration & UI better in 4.2?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg36824] Are configuration & UI better in 4.2?
- From: fjolsvit <fjolsvit at netscape.net>
- Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2002 04:15:31 -0400 (EDT)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
I have spent far more time attempting to get Mathematica configured than I have using it. I've found the the product to be exceptionally difficult to configure. My platform is SuSE Linux on Intel. As an example, I spent several hours trying to figure out how to tell Mathematica to understand the delete key in the way most contemporary systems understand it. I wanted to avoid modifying system configuration files such as: /usr/local/mathematica/SystemFiles/FrontEnd/TextResources/KeyEventTranslations.tr I expected to be able to change something in my own ~/.Mathematic directory, but I could not figure out an obvious way to affect this modification. I want to adjust the font size used in the widgets, but again, I see no ovbious means of modifying these attributes. I suspect it can be accomplished by modifying the ~/.Mathematica/4.1/FrontEnd/init.m. Perhaps to an experienced Mathematica user, the syntax and semantics of this file are obvious. They aren't to me. I also find the overall look & feel of the interface to be archaic. I understand that Mathematica 4.1 was written years ago, and much of the desktops for Unix which exist today did not exist when it was written. I should be receiving Mathematica 4.2 in a few days, so perhaps these concerns will prove undounded. Something tells me that not a lot has changed in this respect. What have others observed?