Re: Frontend suggestions
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg111792] Re: Frontend suggestions
- From: Simon <simonjtyler at gmail.com>
- Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2010 06:57:05 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <i3r0kt$deb$1@smc.vnet.net> <i40ep0$bo1$1@smc.vnet.net>
On Aug 12, 7:26 pm, "S. B. Gray" <stev... at ROADRUNNER.COM> wrote: > On 8/10/2010 12:55 AM, David Bailey wrote: > > > Since the subject of possible enhancements to the FE is being discussed= , > > I wonder if we could determine which feature would be most popular. I > > have two requests: > > > 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 popu= lar. > > > David Bailey > > >http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk > > I vote for infinite undo, AND - > > 1. MUCH more rational behavior of text handling in general. Some of the > things it does are either gross bugs or totally bizarre decisions. If > anyone else cares I will list the ones that bug me the most. Given all > the dumb things that it does I would never consider it for serious > writing tasks. > > 2. Selection of noncontiguous text like MS Word (finally) does, so you > can apply changes to a bunch of separated text all at once. > > 3. Better visibility of cell properties for example non-evaluatable, > text cells, etc. > > 4. Better visibility of found strings during searches. I waste time > trying to find the things it just found. Add backwards searches and > better notification of what it's doing. > > 5. An easy way to have Print work more like it does in C (a language > that I hate). Specifically a way to print pieces of lines while Mathemati= ca is > calculating rather than Print working only in whole lines. > > Steve Gray 1) Infinite undo might be difficult in a notebook -- too many ways to change things, but some level of multiple undo would be handy. (Although I find teaching students in computing labs, the single step undo is handy -- I can show them something then delete it and they can't recover it with undo) Also, a convenient method of version control / back-ups would be useful. 2) I'm not sure what you mean by this... 3) I'm happy with the cell brackets - but it could be changed. 4) I agree. Also you should be able to use the Mathematica (string)pattern matching in their search... 5) I think that there's good reasons that Print doesn't work like in other languages. I normally only use print when I'm debugging. But I had a go at writing a function that does what you want: PrintOn[expr] will append expr to the previous Print cell. It could do with some cleaning and hardening though.... PrintOn[expr__]:=Module[{nb=EvaluationNotebook[],ebox=Riffle[ToBoxes/ @{expr},""],data,old}, NotebookFind[nb,"Print",Previous,CellStyle]; old=NotebookRead[nb];data=old[[1]]//.RowBox|BoxData|InterpretationBox- >(#1&); NotebookWrite[nb,ReplacePart[old,1- >BoxData[RowBox[Flatten[{data,"",ebox}]]]]]] Simon