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From: AES on 21 Dec 2009 03:31
In article <hgl36q$sf$1(a)smc.vnet.net>,
Murray Eisenberg <murray(a)math.umass.edu> wrote:

> If you don't want CellChangeTimes at all, you can try to use the Options
> Inspector setting TrackCellChangeTimes->False. But I think that will
> apply only to cells newly created after the change. Or you could make
> that a global setting, applicable to all notebooks. But beware: who
> knows to what uses that option might be put by Mathematica. (The docs
> don't seem to say.)

The Help for this function ought to have had just a sentence or two,
prominently near the top, telling how to turn it off (or, if there's a
valid reason for not turning it off -- which I very much doubt --
warning not to turn it off).

Just one more example of the minor but innumerable examples of the
inadequacy of Wolfram/Mathematica documentation . . . sorry, had to vent
on this.

From: Murray Eisenberg on 22 Dec 2009 04:07
I see no such glaring omission in the documentation. The fact is, the
documentation DOES tell how to turn off CellChangeTimes tracking. But
it would be unreasonable, if not impossible, for every documentation
page that mentions a particular object to say everything one might want
to know about that object.

Details:

First, a beginner most likely has no business looking at cell
expressions, hence would not even know about CellChangeTimes.

Second, once somebody is advanced enough with Mathematica to be looking
at cell expressions and hence discover CellChangeTimes -- presumably
because he has seen it as an option in such an expression -- he should
be in a position to discover what he needs to know about turning off
that option in one of at least the following ways:

(1) Opening the Options Inspector (if not the simpler, more direct, menu
item Edit > Preferences), type CellChangeTimes, and see as the
immediately next option there, TrackCellChangeTimes.

(2) Look up CellChangeTimes in the Documentation Center and, seeing
nothing there about how to turn it off, following the links to "Notebook
History", then Tutorial "Notebook History Dialog". In the latter
tutorial, it DOES SAY precisely how to turn TrackCellChangeTimes to False.

(3) Having looked up CellChangeTimes in the Documentation Center search
bar and being taken to the ref page for that, using the "Search for all
pages containing CellChangeTimes" search (just below the main search bar
there) and getting a list of references. The 4th of these takes you
directly to the same tutorial that I referenced above, whereas the 2nd
takes you there in two jumps.

Perhaps one should not be quite so hasty in finding fault with
Mathematica, or its documentation.

the sec
AES wrote:
> In article <hgl36q$sf$1(a)smc.vnet.net>,
> Murray Eisenberg <murray(a)math.umass.edu> wrote:
>
>> If you don't want CellChangeTimes at all, you can try to use the Options
>> Inspector setting TrackCellChangeTimes->False. But I think that will
>> apply only to cells newly created after the change. Or you could make
>> that a global setting, applicable to all notebooks. But beware: who
>> knows to what uses that option might be put by Mathematica. (The docs
>> don't seem to say.)
>
> The Help for this function ought to have had just a sentence or two,
> prominently near the top, telling how to turn it off (or, if there's a
> valid reason for not turning it off -- which I very much doubt --
> warning not to turn it off).
>
> Just one more example of the minor but innumerable examples of the
> inadequacy of Wolfram/Mathematica documentation . . . sorry, had to vent
> on this.
>

--
Murray Eisenberg murray(a)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

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