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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