Re: irritating screen jumps in Mathematica 8.0.4
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg125281] Re: irritating screen jumps in Mathematica 8.0.4
- From: Joseph Gwinn <joegwinn at comcast.net>
- Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2012 04:34:09 -0500 (EST)
- Delivered-to: l-mathgroup@mail-archive0.wolfram.com
- References: <jit120$e7p$1@smc.vnet.net>
In article <jit120$e7p$1 at smc.vnet.net>,
Dushan Mitrovich <dushanm at spinn.net> wrote:
> Using Mathematica 8.0.4 under Mac OS X.6.8 I finally got irritated
> enough by a certain behavior to ask here if there's any way to stop it.
>
> A lot of the typical notebook I work on involves word processing, with
> only occasional Input/Output cells as needed. So most of the equations
> are in separate lines and contained in math boxes (enclosed by Ctrl-(
> and Ctrl-) ).
>
> If I edit something in one of those boxes, then hit either Up-arrow or
> Down-arrow to get out of it and go to the previous or next line, the
> cursor jumps to the front or back of the box and all the screen contents
> jump _down_. So going into and out of a math box by repeating either
> arrow key combination {Left, Down} or {Right, Up} will cause the screen
> contents to keep jumping down until the box is at the bottom of the
> screen. At that point the Left or Right arrow key causes the screen
> contents to jump up so the box is inside the window, then the Down or Up
> keys jumps it back to where it was.
>
> The jumps (of the screen contents, not of the cursor) almost guarantee
> that I'll momentarily lose my place and have to re-find it. This is the
> irritant, and I see no reason why it should exist. The cursor jumping
> into and out of the box would be no problem, as it wouldn't destroy
> one's focus.
>
> Have others run into this, and if so is there a way to prevent it?
All the time, and not just in boxed cells. Jumps often happen in the
gap when I look from screen to keyboard to type something in, causing a
mistake. Undo often saves the day, but Undo is only one deep, so it's
easily evaded. I have lost lots of text this way. Many of the jumps
seem to be due to a slight twitch of the hand while looking away after
positioning the cursor.
The basic problem is that the UI is too twitchy. I don't have a
solution, but wish I did.
Joe Gwinn