RE: Re: more gripe about the new documentation center (DC) in Mathematica
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg77893] RE: [mg77862] Re: more gripe about the new documentation center (DC) in Mathematica
- From: José Luis Gómez-Muñoz <jose.luis.gomez at itesm.mx>
- Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 06:38:41 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <f530gp$16k$1@smc.vnet.net> <200706181106.HAA19804@smc.vnet.net>
I love Mathematica. I really hope our comments can help making a great product even better. The v6.0 Documentation Center has a lot more examples (than the old v5.2 help), many of them really really neat. So why we (some of the users) do not like it? In my case, because I cannot see the structure that I was able to see in v5.2 Help Browser. Maybe the structure is there, but I cannot see it. Let me quote Kovas Boguta, from Wolfram Research, in his post to the Wolfram Blog, he was writing about a very different topic, but I think we can apply it here: "An English phrase is built of subphrases. A mathematical formula is built of subformulas. A musical score is built of bars, which contain notes. A web page layout is built from sublayouts. When humans want to communicate nontrivial structures, they use hierarchical nesting." http://blog.wolfram.com/2007/06/symbolic_programming_computati.html#more That is, in my opinion, the main thing that v6.0 help lost (as compare with v5.2 help): (explicit) hierarchical structure. Now I quote myself. Sorry for that, I really want to be useful. In another reply, I wrote: >I believe that Szabolcs has described precisely the "problem" >with v6.0 documentation: If v5.2 help seemed to be a (safe) Tree, now >v6.0 help seems to be a (unsafe) Labyrinth. > >The tree-like structure of v5.2 help browser helps the end user have >the feeling that s/he will eventually be able to know everything that >has to be known about a specific topic. Just have to "travel" and spend >enough time "inside" all the relevant branches. > >That comfortable sensation was lost in v6.0 Documentation Center. Again, I really hope all this considerations are useful for the great team at WRI. Regards Jose -----Mensaje original----- De: David Bailey [mailto:dave at Remove_Thisdbailey.co.uk] Enviado el: Lunes, 18 de Junio de 2007 06:06 a.m. Para: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net Asunto: [mg77862] Re: more gripe about the new documentation center (DC) in Mathematica 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
- References:
- Re: more gripe about the new documentation center (DC) in Mathematica
- From: David Bailey <dave@Remove_Thisdbailey.co.uk>
- Re: more gripe about the new documentation center (DC) in Mathematica