Re: Re: More /.{I->-1} craziness
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg106556] Re: [mg106529] Re: More /.{I->-1} craziness
- From: DrMajorBob <btreat1 at austin.rr.com>
- Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2010 06:11:39 -0500 (EST)
- References: <200912300915.EAA17299@smc.vnet.net> <hhhmn8$o9t$1@smc.vnet.net>
- Reply-to: drmajorbob at yahoo.com
> These capabilities frequently have varied options: > "Find Next" "Replace and Find" "As Word" > "Start at Top" "Replace All" "In Selection Only" > and so on. Many have optional GREP abilities. > > So: > > 1) Most any computer user at even a very elementary level knows about > these tools, rather expects to have them available, and expects them to > function as they in fact do function. Agreed. WRI's help facility, also, has long suffered (IMHO) from an unusual concept of what "search" means. Find within a notebook works more or less as above, but Replace and ReplaceAll do not. They do a more complicated job, admittedly, but not in what I'd call a WYSIWYG manner. A Replace function that works on Graphics internals is hard to imagine without viewing it in terms of FullForm (or other internal representation), but the internals of Graphics are not well-documented or static. I frequently have to actually LOOK at the voluminous FullForm of a graphic, in order to discover what can be changed. Bobby On Fri, 15 Jan 2010 02:20:47 -0600, AES <siegman at stanford.edu> wrote: > In article <hhpl28$9lf$1 at smc.vnet.net>, > Leonid Shifrin <lshifr at gmail.com> wrote: > >> >> I stick to my view of replacement rules as being aimed primarily at >> advanced >> users, or at least as a tool that should be used with much care. > > > But on the other hand, innumerable software apps of all varieties and at > all levels down to the most elementary (e.g., nearly all word > processors, text editors, graphics programs, spreadsheet programs, email > programs, and so on) include "Find and Replace" capabilities. > > These capabilities frequently have varied options: > "Find Next" "Replace and Find" "As Word" > "Start at Top" "Replace All" "In Selection Only" > and so on. Many have optional GREP abilities. > > So: > > 1) Most any computer user at even a very elementary level knows about > these tools, rather expects to have them available, and expects them to > function as they in fact do function. > > 2) In particular, they operate (visibly!) on what you see -- not some > arcane internal representation. > > 3) So, if such a novice user goes to Mathematica, it's only to be > expected that this user will thnik that Mathematica's ReplaceAll should > function in a similar fashion (and, helpfully, Mathematic's /. operator > most of the time does function in that way) (sarcasm mode in that > parens). > > 4) So why can't Mathematica also have a TextReplace[ ] function, or > something similar, that would function in that way _on what the user > sees or has typed (or copied and pasted) into a selected cell_. > > Given such a function my input would be Find " I " and replace it > with " (-I) ". > -- DrMajorBob at yahoo.com