Re: Re: annoying documentation in 6 (rant)
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg79087] Re: [mg79068] Re: annoying documentation in 6 (rant)
- From: Murray Eisenberg <murray at math.umass.edu>
- Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 02:57:23 -0400 (EDT)
- Organization: Mathematics & Statistics, Univ. of Mass./Amherst
- References: <f77j9r$c9p$1@smc.vnet.net> <19356212.1184479716385.JavaMail.root@m35> <f7f34s$od7$1@smc.vnet.net> <200707170728.DAA27254@smc.vnet.net>
- Reply-to: murray at math.umass.edu
Here's another shortcoming of the 6.0 Documentation Center organization (or lack thereof). When one uses special input forms (abbreviations), such as = and := and /. and @ and @@ and @@@ and /@, what is the order of precedence and what is the grouping when a single form appears several times in a row? In The Mathematica Book this was answered in an obvious place, namely, Section A.2, "Input Syntax", of the Appendix "Mathematica Reference Guide". Where is it in the Version 6.0 Documentation Center? After some considerable searching I found it in tutorial/InputSyntax. But at this point I cannot even reconstruct how I found it! I tried searching on "precedence" and "order of precedence". The first turns up nothing obviously useful. The second gave as the tenth entry "The Syntax of the Mathematica Language", which is a tutorial. And roughly a third to a half-way down in that tutorial says, The table in "Operator Input Forms" gives the complete ordering by precedence of all operators in Mathematica. The phrase 'Operator Input Forms' there has a link, finally, to the correct place in the tutorial (!!) InputSyntax. Another possible route to the same thing is from the home page of the Documentation Center, at the item "Syntax" in the first box "Core Language". The target is guide/Syntax. In that guide, near the bottom of the page, under "Tutorials", is a link to the aforementioned tutorial "The Syntax of the Mathematica Language" (which then requires spotting the further link to the relevant material). And in guide/Syntax there's another tutorial link, "Input Syntax", whose target is the desired end-point tutorial/InputSyntax. Such are the ways of the 6.0 Documentation Center -- and some of the intricacies and limitations of combining expository and tutorial presentations with reference materials. In the case at hand, I got there eventually. But after I did I felt like it shouldn't be so hard. (Maybe the younger generations are more adept or more patient at negotiating searches than I!) So: The more I use the Documentation Center, the more I like it and, at the same time, the more I miss The Mathematica Book (whether printed or electronic). David Bailey wrote: > Seriously, though, without a book for 6.0, the help topics absolutely > must be authoritative and complete. -- Murray Eisenberg murray at math.umass.edu Mathematics & Statistics Dept. Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H) University of Massachusetts 413 545-2859 (W) 710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801 Amherst, MA 01003-9305
- References:
- Re: annoying documentation in 6 (rant)
- From: David Bailey <dave@Remove_Thisdbailey.co.uk>
- Re: annoying documentation in 6 (rant)