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Re: Re: CellChangeTimes?

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg105830] Re: [mg105829] Re: CellChangeTimes?
  • From: "David Park" <djmpark at comcast.net>
  • Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:30:03 -0500 (EST)
  • References: <hgidat$o2q$1@smc.vnet.net> <14650132.1261312599116.JavaMail.root@n11>

While it may be true that regular Mathematica users won't generally have to
look much at the underlying cell expression, there are a number of cases
where it is worthwhile. I think these rise a little above the "hacking"
level.

Underlying cell expressions are useful when you want to control the "look
and feel" of a notebook, but not so much for "doing mathematics". The most
common case is when you want to change options for cells. A case of this is
adding ShowGroupOpener -> True to various section headers.

Another useful place to work with the cell expressions is in designing style
sheets. Cell characteristics are almost all controlled by options and it
just seems to me to be more convenient to see them all listed in one place
instead of working from the Format menu.

Another useful place is in working with Workbench/DocuTools. The whole thing
is a little esoteric and one can get a better idea of what is going on by
looking at the underlying expressions in various linking constructs.
Sometimes you can copy existing cells and then edit the underlying
expression to obtain what you want.



David Park
djmpark at comcast.net
http://home.comcast.net/~djmpark/  



From: magma [mailto:maderri2 at gmail.com] 

I am more interested in knowing why you seem to be using Show
Expression so often that this feature bothers you? I personally use it
veeery rarely. Last time a few hours ago to answer a post here
relating to the special characters palette. I think I used it several
months ago the prior time.
Show Expression has a very complex output and IMO should only be used
by "hackers" and not regular Mathematica users. going so low level is not
too
time efficient for regular users. If one wants to discover something
very special, it is faster to ask here in MathGroup.
If you want to see how things work internally (up to a certain level),
FullForm should be enough for regular Mathematica users (that is anybody who
is not a computer scientist).
So: why do you use Show Expression so often to be bothered by
CellChangeTimes ?




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