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Re: Re: Re: annoying documentation in 6 (rant)

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg79138] Re: [mg79087] Re: [mg79068] Re: annoying documentation in 6 (rant)
• From: DrMajorBob <drmajorbob at bigfoot.com>
• Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2007 03:37:45 -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> <15378332.1184812151208.JavaMail.root@m35>
• Reply-to: drmajorbob at bigfoot.com

Having seen the table Murray writes of... far down the page in  
tutorial/InputSyntax... I think we both wasted our time finding it. The 
table is very, very long... so long, in fact, that it's completely  
useless. (And there's not just ONE of these monsters, either.)

The tutorial should be broken into about TEN tutorials, and I agree with 
Murray that it's nearly impossible to find the table unless you know it 
exists and exactly where it is. However... I like complete documentation 
as much as anybody, but...

My advice: don't waste YOUR time, like Murray and I did.

When I want to know operator precedence, I always have a specific use in 
mind, I type it in, I double-click on any operator, and voila! I see the 
order of precedence. If it's not what I want, I add parentheses.

End of story.

Bobby

On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 01:57:23 -0500, Murray Eisenberg  
<murray at math.umass.edu> 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 spottin
> 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.
>



-- 

DrMajorBob at bigfoot.com

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Re: Re: Re: annoying documentation
    • From: Murray Eisenberg <murray@math.umass.edu>

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