Re: Re: (any documentation for) linear syntax?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg107597] Re: [mg107569] Re: [mg107534] (any documentation for) linear syntax?
- From: John Fultz <jfultz at wolfram.com>
- Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:33:32 -0500 (EST)
- Reply-to: jfultz at wolfram.com
On Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:50:32 -0600, DrMajorBob wrote: >> Instead, use Edit->Enter Selection while you >> have an instance of the thing you're looking for selected. >> > There is no "Enter Selection" option under "Edit" on my menu bar. On Mac, it's Edit->Find->Use Selection for Find. > If that option DID exist, I couldn't do it unless I already had that > symbol or group of symbols present in the notebook, in order to select > them. True (except, technically, it would have to be in an open notebook; not necessarily the notebook you were searching in). I didn't mean to imply otherwise. > $Version > > "7.0 for Mac OS X x86 (64-bit) (February 19, 2009)" > > So... tell me again how I'd search for a symbol such as esc elem esc?? You can use its longname. \[Element], in this case. > Bobby Sincerely, John Fultz jfultz at wolfram.com User Interface Group Wolfram Research, Inc. > > On Wed, 17 Feb 2010 06:03:48 -0600, John Fultz <jfultz at wolfram.com>= wrote: > >> If you want to search for a typeset form in the Find/Replace dialog, I >> strongly >> recommend not doing this by hand. Instead, use Edit->Enter Selection >> while you >> have an instance of the thing you're looking for selected. Mathematica >> will >> automatically convert it to the right form for you. >> >> That's really all you need to know. The rest of my response is for >> anyone who >> wants to understand a bit more about the details of the system, and >> cares to >> hear any ramblings and ruminations I might have to offer about it. >> >> The form you're talking about is not documented exhaustively, but it is >> documented. In the help viewer, enter the following to find it... >> >> tutorial/StringRepresentationOfBoxes >> >> This form is the only way in which boxes can be represented inside of >> strings. >> That is, by the way, where the term "linear syntax" comes from. In a >> string, >> you must have a linear representation (as opposed to an expression tree) >> because >> strings are a linear sequence of characters. >> >> This is all a bit unfortunate, because linear syntax can get extremely >> unwieldy, >> and it's particularly inside of strings where it becomes most unwieldy >> due to >> subtle issues with how the backslash escaping mechanism works within >> strings. >> While it's possible to create such forms by hand, we generally don't >> recommend >> it, and recommend instead using the various built-in ways of >> auto-converting >> when necessary (the documentation points to some of these). >> >> If it sounds like I'm not exactly thrilled about how we designed this >> aspect of >> the system, that's because I'm not. There are several gotchas I haven't >> fleshed >> out here, and with the hindsight that we now have, we could probably >> have done >> this better. Maybe we will someday. In the mean time, when you do have >> to >> interact with it, it's best to let the system work it out for you. In >> the case >> of Find/Replace, that tends to be pretty simple using the method I >> described in >> my first paragraph. >> >> Sincerely, >> >> John Fultz >> jfultz at wolfram.com >> User Interface Group >> Wolfram Research, Inc. >> >> >> On Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:52:49 -0500 (EST), divisor wrote: >>> Hello MathGroup: >>> >>> Solving a recent problem I had, Maxim mentioned that this string: >>> >>> Subscript[\[Alpha], 23]" >>> >>> can be used in the Find-Replace dialog by its evaluated equivalent >>> using this string: >>> >>> \!\(\[Alpha]\_23\) >>> >>> He called this "linear syntax". >>> >>> Since I will have other expressions that I need to convert into a form >>> like this, I tried to look this up in the help documentation. No luck >>> when trying these pages: >>> >>> guide/Syntax >>> tutorial/SpecialWaysToInputExpressions >>> >>> Can anyone tell me what this is called in the documentation or where I >>> can find documentation describing it? >>> >>> Thanks in advance. >>> >>> Roger Williams >>> Franklin Laboratory