Re: How to change the directory for the docs?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg115343] Re: How to change the directory for the docs?
- From: Murray Eisenberg <murray at math.umass.edu>
- Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2011 03:38:42 -0500 (EST)
A wiki, controlled by WRI or outside, could be valuable. But not at the expense of the built-in documentation, where, for example: - the F1 key or the >> link in a ?name output in a notebook takes you directly to the relevant reference page; - you can directly execute input in a doc page, as is or when you change it in place; and - you can copy input cells or groups directly into your notebook, without any conversion difficulties. Moreover, my experience with on-line help for other programs is that the browser itself, however minimal, wastes valuable screen space. The economy of the Documentation Center window surpasses that of any on-line docs I've used. On 1/7/2011 4:07 AM, kj wrote: > In<ifuorh$cbi$1 at smc.vnet.net> telefunkenvf14<rgorka at gmail.com> writes: > >> On Jan 3, 2:57 am, kj<no.em... at please.post> wrote: >>> In<ifpk99$bs... at smc.vnet.net> David Bailey<d... at removedbailey.co.uk> writes: >>> >>>> It might help to explain why you want to do this. There is probably an >>>> easier way to achieve whatever it is you want to do. >>> >>> Well, if you want to know, I've copied all the Mathematica >>> documentation notebooks to a personal directory, so that I can >>> modify them at will. The ultimate goal is to supplement these >>> notebooks with important information that they lack, and to fix >>> factual errors in them. I want all the built-in Mathematica help >>> facilities to point to these annotated notebooks rather than to >>> the "official" ones. >>> >>> ~kj > >> Now I'm intrigued... Can we make a wiki version?!? > > That's exactly right. In fact, I think that something similar to > a wiki should be the standard way to document all software. The > difference from a wiki is that the various strands of contribution > (including the original documentation) are kept separate. The > viewer can choose to turn on or off strands by individual authors. > I've seen something similar to this done before (Postgres, Perl), > but it has not caught on for some reason, despite the general > proliferation of wikis. > >> (Guessing WRI would >> not be happy with this---umm...copy rights?) > > That was my guess too. Judging by the tight-fistedness of their > documentation, I can guess that they'd want absolute control over > anything that could be construed as documentation for Mathematica. > Avoiding hassles from WRI's lawyers is the main reason I have not > set up a wiki-like site like the one described above. (And I > wouldn't be surprised on bit if WRI has squashed similar efforts > before.) > > ~kj > -- Murray Eisenberg murray at math.umass.edu Mathematics & Statistics Dept. Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H) University of Massachusetts 413 545-2859 (W) 710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801 Amherst, MA 01003-9305