Re: Suggestions
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg111613] Re: Suggestions
- From: Murray Eisenberg <murray at math.umass.edu>
- Date: Sat, 7 Aug 2010 01:33:14 -0400 (EDT)
First, one can never tell ahead of time what might emerge in a subsequent version! Second, as to size of typeset fractions: the often unpleasant small size is akin to the default behavior the "gold standard" of mathematical typesetting, namely, LaTeX. There the size of fractions in in-line math automatically shrinks, but if you want to resize it larger, you can explicitly do so by inserting a markup command to say to use display style, which sets numerator and denominator in normal size -- with the result, of course, that the line with such an in-line fraction becomes higher than normal and extra inter-line leading has to be introduced (automatically), which can lead to unpleasant results. (So what mechanism would you want to control fraction size, and how would you want the inter-line spacing to be handled. (AFAIK, Mathematica does not a distinction between typesetting in-line math and display math.) Third, as to indicating where an error is: perhaps part of the difficulty here the very syntax of Mathematica. Syntactical scanning of an expression is not such a simple thing. Here I contrast with J or APL, where there is a fairly strict left-to-right or right-to-left syntactical scanning, so that it is essentially trivial to determine where an error occurs. On 8/6/2010 6:56 AM, S. B. Gray wrote: > This was posted in 2003: > > "Selwyn Hollis"<selwynh at earthlink.net> wrote in message > news:bgcupq$9qi$1 at smc.vnet.net... > > > Print preview should certainly be near the top of any wish list. (But > > > if you're fortunate enough to have a Mac w/OS X, printing to PDF is > > > almost as good.) > > > > > > To any such wish list I'd also add, in no particular order: > > > > > > * antialiasing of graphics!! > > > * flexible top/bottom cell margins > > > * serious undo functionality > > > * real unicode support (on the Mac anyway) > > > * better find/replace (e.g., replace all in selection) > > > * robust import of eps and pdf graphics > > > * less need for tweaking to make expressions look right; namely: > > > ** better typesetting of fractions (size should not be connected > > > to sub/superscript multiplier) > > >** more consistent and reliable placement of sub/superscripts > > >** more consistent and reliable spacing > > >** more consistent and reliable sizing of summation and integral signs > > To which I would add: > > 1. Make word wrap work in a rational way. At present, it sucks. > 2. Allow noncontiguous selection of text like MS Word (finally) does > 3. Get a text menu displayed, again like MS Word > 4. Allow making actual margins around graphics variable > 5. Make the cell properties more visible (the stripes on the right edge) > 6. MAKE THE FOUND OBJECT HIGHLIGHT MORE VISIBLE (when you do search) > 7. MAKE THE ERROR MESSAGES USEFUL(Mathematica knows where the error is; why > doesn't it tell you?) > > 8. Give some indication that Wolfram listens to its customers. > 9. I expect a certain number of these suggestions and Hollis' to be > acted on, namely zero. > > Steve Gray > -- Murray Eisenberg murray at math.umass.edu Mathematics & Statistics Dept. Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H) University of Massachusetts 413 545-2859 (W) 710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801 Amherst, MA 01003-9305