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Re: Where is the Mathematica Book in Documentation Center?

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg76200] Re: [mg75987] Where is the Mathematica Book in Documentation Center?
• From: Mark Adler <madler at alumni.caltech.edu>
• Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 06:14:11 -0400 (EDT)
• References: <200705140749.DAA23216@smc.vnet.net> <464BE4E2.5020508@wolf-ram.com>

Igor,

Thank you for your comments.  I would like to do some comparisons of  
the old and new help.  So ...

Can 5.2 and 6.0 installations coexist on the same machine (within a  
single instantiation of an operating system on that machine) and work  
independently?  If so, is there a way for me to download the 5.2  
package again so I can reinstall it?  (Like an idiot, I deleted the  
old installation package once the new version appeared to be  
working.)  Then I can compare directly the help functions in each.  I  
don't want to make claims from my faulty memory about things that I  
think were in the 5.2 help.

I was not in love with the 5.2 help -- there were a lot of things I  
didn't like about it.  (Having only one help window was one of them,  
which is fixed in 6.0.)  However what I found most useful were the  
links into the Mathematica book, where I could read about not only  
what I had asked about, but a bunch of other things in the vicinity,  
some related, some not so related.  And I would inevitably wander off  
in the book and discover some other things I didn't know.   
(Mathematica is like a sprawling urban development that grows much  
faster than I can walk around to explore it.)

The book encouraged a new journey whenever I used the help.  The  
Documentation Center seems more like a very large collection of dead  
ends and perhaps a few cul-de-sacs with some houses that you might  
stumble upon.

I will try to provide some more detailed deficiencies if I can  
somehow run 5.2 alongside 6.0 to compare.

Mark

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Re: Where is the Mathematica Book in Documentation
    • From: "Igor C. Antonio" <igora@wolf-ram.com>

• References:
  • Where is the Mathematica Book in Documentation Center?
    • From: Mark Adler <madler@alumni.caltech.edu>