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Re: Mathematica 8 docs online now!

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg113882] Re: Mathematica 8 docs online now!
  • From: "Hans Michel" <hmichel at cox.net>
  • Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2010 05:27:55 -0500 (EST)

Please see the thread from 8/10/2010 "[mg111677] Frontend suggestions". You
are not the only one thinking of this.

WRI has been asked the question in the past outside this forum. There
probably is a philosophy or principle behind the current workflow. I
currently can't find reference to such a principle. 

Anyone who has taught or sat in a class room with a blackboard when you run
out of vertical space you move horizontally to the next blackboard segment.
The analogy fails for Mathematica because you should be using it to solve
any initially stated problem, not to write out the steps. So if the
application is working as designed you should get an answer in the next
Out[]. But sometimes I want the Out[] in another column next to the In[];
not vertically below it.

We need compelling reasons other than I want my paper to look like journal
X's 2 column format.

Why would we need alterative composition in the FrontEnd?

Nevertheless, the new version 8 features look promising.

Hans
-----Original Message-----
From: Peltio [mailto:peltio at twilight.zone] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2010 4:04 AM
To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
Subject: [mg113882] [mg113854] Re: Mathematica 8 docs online now!

Sjoerd C. de Vries scriveva il 15-Nov-10 :
> Subject says it all: right now the doc pages of the new mathematica
> version 8 are online on the WRI reference section.

http://reference.wolfram.com/mathematica/guide/SummaryOfNewFeaturesIn80.html

Lots and lots of new (and sometimes very advanced) stuff, but still - 
to my knowledge (*) - no simple way to arrange a notebook's text and 
input cells on multiple columns.
It seems that Mathematica can only have a simple linear layout,

|
|  text
|
|  formula
|
|  figure
|
|  text
|
|  ...
|
|
V

like most books printed in 18xx and 19xx.

- Yes I'm aware one can create cumbersome tables and put text and 
graphics in different columns. What Mathematica lacks (in my opinion, but
maybe 
I am the only one on Earth thinking that) is a New Kind of Layout.
Perhaps a new supercell structure that can accomodate multiple cells 
(input, text, graphics...) in two or more (simply expandable) columns.

Just wishing.
Maybe the Front-end Gods will implement something like that in 
Mathematica 14. :-]

Peltio

(*) I hope to be proved wrong.




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