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Re: more gripe about the new documentation center (DC) in Mathematica

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  • Subject: [mg77831] Re: more gripe about the new documentation center (DC) in Mathematica
  • From: Helen Read <hpr at together.net>
  • Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 06:50:11 -0400 (EDT)
  • References: <f530gp$16k$1@smc.vnet.net>
  • Reply-to: HPR <read at math.uvm.edu>

Nasser Abbasi wrote:
> 
> 2) When I ask DC to search for something, there is no indication it is busy 
> searching. On a slow PC, one thinks it is frozen, or may be the command did 
> not 'go through',  and tries the same search command again. There should be 
> something spinning or some indication that the command was actually accepted 
> and being processed. This is a UI design 101 thing.
> 
> Sometimes DC takes more than 5 seconds to return a result on my old PC.

This happens on my 5-year-old PC as well, and I agree that it would be 
nice to have some indication it is working. It's not a big deal now that 
I know to just wait, but it was a bit unsettling at first.

> 3)For whatever it is worth, I still think the 5.2 help system is MUCH better 
> for learning and finding what is in the new system.
> 
> The people have spoken: We want the the old help system back. 

Speak for yourself. Now that I have gotten used to the new Documentation 
Center, I like it a lot. The examples on the function pages are much 
more extensive -- and useful -- then in 5.2. As far as learning and 
finding what is new, try clicking on every single item on the home page 
that comes up when you open the DC, and see where it leads you. Yes, 
there are some things that could (and should) be improved in the DC, 
many of which have already been discussed here, but overall I think it's 
an improvement over the old Help.

-- 
Helen Read
University of Vermont


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