Re: Where is the Mathematica Book in
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg78134] Re: Where is the Mathematica Book in
- From: Paul <pehowland at iee.org>
- Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2007 07:18:57 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <f2ejvs$id$1@smc.vnet.net> <f2h9i2$1a7$1@smc.vnet.net>
On 2007-05-17 12:08:02 +0200, David Bailey <dave at Remove_Thisdbailey.co.uk> said: > W. Craig Carter wrote: >> Many things in Mathematica 6 are an improvement---I have to agree that >> the documentation center is not one of them. I often (and prefer to in >> many cases) work offline. Having the Mathematica book while working on >> an airplane was very useful. >> >> However, I do appreciate the ability to create multiple help-center windows. >> >> WCC >> >>> The Mathematica Book is online at >>> >>> http://documents.wolfram.com/mathematica/book/ >>> On Mon, 14 May 2007 02:49:32 -0500, Mark Adler <madler at alumni.caltech.edu> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> The old help function was actually helpful. >>>> >> >> > Yes, indeed - please will Wolfram pull together the 6.0 documentation, > combine it with those parts of the 5.2 book that are still valid (most > of it) and create an up-to-date version of the Mathematica book! I > agree, that too many trees would be consumed to print the thing, so it > would only be available electronically. However it is necessary to have > well thought out continuous prose to put features into their correct > context. > > David Bailey > http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk I second all of this. Whilst the new help system is an improvement when used as reference guide, it is abysmal as any kind of overview or tutorial on Mathematica. If I was starting from scratch with Mathematica now, I don't think I would ever be able to get into it. The guide, IMHO, needs two additional features: a) a logical "table of contents" which would allow be to see at a glance the overall features of Mathematica and the help on them; b) a few tutorial threads (much like Sun provide on their Java pages) which I could follow that would take me from complete novice through to guru. Paul