Re: General--Making the DisplayFormula style in ArticleModern look like Traditional
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg64930] Re: General--Making the DisplayFormula style in ArticleModern look like Traditional
- From: Paul Abbott <paul at physics.uwa.edu.au>
- Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2006 00:59:41 -0500 (EST)
- Organization: The University of Western Australia
- References: <dujsgg$97j$1@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
In article <dujsgg$97j$1 at smc.vnet.net>, Bill Rowe <readnewsciv at earthlink.net> wrote: > Assume for the moment, Mathematica is entirely bug free with respect to > converting StandardForm to TraditionalForm. The net effect of this conversion > is to create (in many cases) nicer looking output at the cost of obscuring > the needed input. This assumes that people will be typing in electronic code from an electronic document by hand! Surely you would agree that the need to do this archaic practice is rapidly diminishing? And, indeed, it is part of the whole rationale behind the use of Notebooks. > For many widely used functions, the traditional form is seems to be a more > compact notation, more easily understood and easily mentally translated to > StandardForm. But Mathematica handles a wide variety of functions. And some > of those functions typeset in traditional form are not widely used and are > unfamiliar to someone outside a particular field where it is commonly used. > For such functions, given there is no simple direct way to input the function > in TraditionalForm, When you say direct, you mean via the keyboard. Of course, you can use palettes -- but you can also use aliases (which I assume you count as indirect). For example, try \[EscapeKey]dintt\[EscapeKey] > there isn't any simple way to use Mathematica's help browser to look up details of the function. Of course, if you have the Notebook you can always convert the TraditionalForm -> StandardForm and then select the function to look up. Actually, this point deserves more discussion. Let me give an example. Type in LegendreP[n, x] Now, if you select LegendreP and do "Find Selected Function..." it will be found in the Help Browser. However, if you select "LegendreP[n, x]" it will not. Moreover, if you convert this input expression to TraditionalForm, select the entire expression, and do "Find Selected Function..." it will not work either. However, what would be smart in such cases is for "Find Selected Function..." to go to the Head of the function (in the StandardForm case) or the TagBox (in the TraditionalForm case), both of which would take you to the entry for LegendreP. Of course, not all TraditionalForm expressions use TagBoxes (BesselJ, for example) -- which is a mistake, in my opinion. > >>But not all readers will have access to, let alone use, the > >>electronic form. > > >I thought that all readers of TMJ had access to the Notebooks. Is > >that not correct? > > No, that assumption is not correct. If all readers of TMJ did have access to > the Notebooks or were reading the electronic version within Mathematica, > there wouldn't be much issue. Well, all Premier Service subscribers can read TMJ for free. See e.g., http://www.wolfram.com/news/mathwire/mw-08-2005.html Universities with site-licenses may also have Premier Service (mine has). > For myself, I've come to prefer StandardForm as the default input form and > TraditionalForm as the default output form. Occasionally, when I need to > share something with a colleague who doesn't use Mathematica, I convert input > cells to TradiationalForm. But I really see no benefit to having the default > input set to TraditionalForm nor taking time to convert StandardForm to > TradiationalForm in notebooks I create for myself. It is, of course, a matter of taste and preference. I regularly switch between formats. Cheers, Paul _______________________________________________________________________ Paul Abbott Phone: 61 8 6488 2734 School of Physics, M013 Fax: +61 8 6488 1014 The University of Western Australia (CRICOS Provider No 00126G) AUSTRALIA http://physics.uwa.edu.au/~paul
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