[Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index]

more gripe about the new documentation center (DC) in Mathematica 6

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg77788] more gripe about the new documentation center (DC) in Mathematica 6
• From: "Nasser Abbasi" <nma at 12000.org>
• Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2007 05:56:41 -0400 (EDT)
• Reply-to: "Nasser Abbasi" <nma at 12000.org>

1) so I start DC, and click on the "index of functions" link, near the 
bottom, and after a little while, I get a new screen showing all the 
functions listed alphabetically. Great, I said, now I can see all the 
functions out there in one place.

I searched for the function PrincipalComponents but it is NOT listed.

But if one does search for PrincipalComponents from that DC tiny search 
window (after erasing what was there every time), this function comes up.

So why was it not lised in the index of functions output?

Does this mean that the "index of functions" only lists those functions that 
does not exist inside packages which requires loading first?  This makes 
this listing less effective then.

2) When I ask DC to search for something, there is no indication it is busy 
searching. On a slow PC, one thinks it is frozen, or may be the command did 
not 'go through',  and tries the same search command again. There should be 
something spinning or some indication that the command was actually accepted 
and being processed. This is a UI design 101 thing.

Sometimes DC takes more than 5 seconds to return a result on my old PC.

3)For whatever it is worth, I still think the 5.2 help system is MUCH better 
for learning and finding what is in the new system.

I do not really need the DC as it is, I can just as well use Google 
directly, which I find myself doing more, since the same information in DC 
is already on WRI web pages and Google finds it just as fast. The earlier 
help system provided a structure to the documentation which added an exrtra 
dimension which DC does not provide.

The people have spoken: We want the the old help system back. (WRI could 
always keep the new DC for those users who prefer Google style 
documentation).

Thank you for listening.

Nasser