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

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg77862] Re: more gripe about the new documentation center (DC) in Mathematica
• From: David Bailey <dave at Remove_Thisdbailey.co.uk>
• Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 07:06:05 -0400 (EDT)
• References: <f530gp$16k$1@smc.vnet.net>

Nasser Abbasi wrote:
> 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
> 
> 
Yes, I too hope they will upgrade the next version of Mathematica by 
putting back the old help system - for most of the reasons you have 
mentioned!

Wouldn't it be great to have 6.0 functionality with a 5.2-style help system!

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

• Follow-Ups:
  • RE: Re: more gripe about the new documentation center (DC) in Mathematica
    • From: José Luis Gómez-Muñoz <jose.luis.gomez@itesm.mx>
  • Re: Re: more gripe about the new documentation center (DC) in Mathematica
    • From: Andrzej Kozlowski <akoz@mimuw.edu.pl>