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Re: annoying documentation in 6 (rant)

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg79125] Re: annoying documentation in 6 (rant)
• From: David Bailey <dave at Remove_Thisdbailey.co.uk>
• Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2007 03:31:00 -0400 (EDT)
• References: <f77j9r$c9p$1@smc.vnet.net> <19356212.1184479716385.JavaMail.root@m35> <f7f34s$od7$1@smc.vnet.net> <200707170728.DAA27254@smc.vnet.net> <f7ke30$4m5$1@smc.vnet.net>

Murray Eisenberg wrote:
> 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,

I certainly agree - that table is very useful, but you can get at least 
part of that information by using Precedence, e.g.:

Precedence[Times]

However, I don't know a function to get the associativity of the operators.

David Bailey
http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Re: annoying documentation in 6 (rant)
    • From: Murray Eisenberg <murray@math.umass.edu>

• References:
  • Re: annoying documentation in 6 (rant)
    • From: David Bailey <dave@Remove_Thisdbailey.co.uk>