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Re: Frontend suggestions

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg111705] Re: Frontend suggestions
  • From: AES <siegman at stanford.edu>
  • Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 04:45:11 -0400 (EDT)
  • References: <i3r0kt$deb$1@smc.vnet.net>

In article <i3r0kt$deb$1 at smc.vnet.net>,
 David Bailey <dave at removedbailey.co.uk> wrote:

> 1)  Infinite undo!
> 
> 2)  Better documentation of functions such as Import that perform a 
> range of operations. So many details seem to slip between the cracks. 
> For example, nowhere does there seem to be a statement that .mid files 
> can be exported but not imported!
> 
> 3)  A total ban on the word "typical" - it doesn't belong in 
> documentation that is supposed to be definitive!
> 
> Please add suggestions in replies and we can see which is the most popular.

4) Present documentation pages have multiple labeled categories, viz., 
More Information, Examples, Scope Generalization & Extensions, 
Applications, Properties & Relations, See Also, Tutorials, and More 
About.

Might seem more than enough -- in fact, too much, since no real person 
just wanting to get enough info to use a given command can devote enough 
time to really read through all of them.

But still:  add an additional category to some (not all -- maybe just a 
few) documentation pages, where needed:  a category named something like 
"Warnings" or "Hints" or even "Gotchas", whose purpose would be just to 
give brief warnings about those gotchas that occur most frequently in 
connection with that particular command.  

The decision as to which commands acquire a Gotcha Warnings section, and 
what goes in it, would be based Wolfram's interface research (Wolfram 
does do interface research?) as to which gotchas occur most frequently 
in the use of Mathematica.  The gotchas that reoccur most repeatedly in 
cssmm postings would be a start.


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