When can Mathematica have a decent Find dialogue?
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From: BernieTheJet on 14 Feb 2010 05:57 I don't know how many times I have muttered under my breath that someone should complain about the lousy Find in Mathematica... but now finally I have decided to take some action for the greater good of all. First, instead of like the Find in other math softwares I use, Mathematica requires I hit three (actually six) keys just to do what they do with a Ctrl-F or an F3 key: Ctrl-C, Ctrl-F, Ctrl-V. Jeez, what a pain. Why do I have to copy the expression I want to search for myself? 'F1' somehow is smart enough to select the entire word, why can't Find? Then, there is no 'Find whole word' option. Very annoying. Every little fragment of a word has to be pondered. Then, there is no 'Undo', so that if one accidentally hits 'Replace All' instead of 'Replace' one might as well just throw away the entire notebook and start over. Then, there is no option to skip Output and just search Input, so every instance of a symbol that really doesn't need to be corrected must be considered. Then, the Find dialogue drops below the searched notebook whenever one switches over to do some edits so that unless one has two screens one is forced to do Ctrl-F again to get it back. Then, the dialogue doesn't remember values all the time when switching back and forth so that if one goes back to Copy some other value, for a replacement value for example, the first value might revert to whatever value was there when it opened. Then, there is no 'Find First' - a pretty standard operation, no? And finally, the layout of the buttons is a bit non-ergonomic and confusing. Really, if they just copied the Find from another leading competitor we'd all be better off. Am I wrong? Bernard
From: Albert Retey on 14 Feb 2010 08:17 Am 14.02.2010 11:57, schrieb BernieTheJet:Hi, > I don't know how many times I have muttered under my breath that > someone should complain about the lousy Find in Mathematica... but now finally > I have decided to take some action for the greater good of all. on this, I have to absolutely agree :-) > First, instead of like the Find in other math softwares I use, Mathematica > requires I hit three (actually six) keys just to do what they do with > a Ctrl-F or an F3 key: Ctrl-C, Ctrl-F, Ctrl-V. Jeez, what a pain. > Why do I have to copy the expression I want to search for myself? > 'F1' somehow is smart enough to select the entire word, why can't > Find? > Then, there is no 'Find whole word' option. Very annoying. Every > little fragment of a word has to be pondered. Good point, I also wonder whether it would be very difficult to provide the Expression-Pattern-Search that is available in the Workbench, actually a real highlight of the workbench that hardly gets any coverage... > Then, there is no 'Undo', so that if one accidentally hits 'Replace > All' instead of 'Replace' one might as well just throw away the entire > notebook and start over. > > Then, there is no option to skip Output and just search Input, so > every instance of a symbol that really doesn't need to be corrected > must be considered. > > Then, the Find dialogue drops below the searched notebook whenever one > switches over to do some edits so that unless one has two screens one > is forced to do Ctrl-F again to get it back. > > Then, the dialogue doesn't remember values all the time when switching > back and forth so that if one goes back to Copy some other value, for > a replacement value for example, the first value might revert to > whatever value was there when it opened. > > Then, there is no 'Find First' - a pretty standard operation, no? > > And finally, the layout of the buttons is a bit non-ergonomic and > confusing. Really, if they just copied the Find from another leading > competitor we'd all be better off. > > Am I wrong? I don't think you are wrong and hope someone with the possibility to change the Find will listen... cheers albert
From: bsyehuda on 14 Feb 2010 08:25 I fully agree with Undo and also agree that a better implementation of the Find utility will be helpful. A workaround not to find and replace over output cells is possible. Alt+left click on a cell bracket selects all cells of the style of the cell you clicked on its bracket. Then the find/replace works only on the selected cells. That is, if you Alt+Select a text cell only these cells will be scanned and replaced I hope this tweak would help yehuda On Sun, Feb 14, 2010 at 12:57 PM, BernieTheJet <berniethejet(a)gmail.com>wrote: > I don't know how many times I have muttered under my breath that > someone should complain about the lousy Find in Mathematica... but now > finally > I have decided to take some action for the greater good of all. > > First, instead of like the Find in other math softwares I use, Mathematica > requires I hit three (actually six) keys just to do what they do with > a Ctrl-F or an F3 key: Ctrl-C, Ctrl-F, Ctrl-V. Jeez, what a pain. > Why do I have to copy the expression I want to search for myself? > 'F1' somehow is smart enough to select the entire word, why can't > Find? > > Then, there is no 'Find whole word' option. Very annoying. Every > little fragment of a word has to be pondered. > > Then, there is no 'Undo', so that if one accidentally hits 'Replace > All' instead of 'Replace' one might as well just throw away the entire > notebook and start over. > > Then, there is no option to skip Output and just search Input, so > every instance of a symbol that really doesn't need to be corrected > must be considered. > > Then, the Find dialogue drops below the searched notebook whenever one > switches over to do some edits so that unless one has two screens one > is forced to do Ctrl-F again to get it back. > > Then, the dialogue doesn't remember values all the time when switching > back and forth so that if one goes back to Copy some other value, for > a replacement value for example, the first value might revert to > whatever value was there when it opened. > > Then, there is no 'Find First' - a pretty standard operation, no? > > And finally, the layout of the buttons is a bit non-ergonomic and > confusing. Really, if they just copied the Find from another leading > competitor we'd all be better off. > > Am I wrong? > > Bernard > >
From: David Bailey on 15 Feb 2010 05:48 BernieTheJet wrote: > I don't know how many times I have muttered under my breath that > someone should complain about the lousy Find in Mathematica... but now finally > I have decided to take some action for the greater good of all. > > First, instead of like the Find in other math softwares I use, Mathematica > requires I hit three (actually six) keys just to do what they do with > a Ctrl-F or an F3 key: Ctrl-C, Ctrl-F, Ctrl-V. Jeez, what a pain. > Why do I have to copy the expression I want to search for myself? > 'F1' somehow is smart enough to select the entire word, why can't > Find? > > Then, there is no 'Find whole word' option. Very annoying. Every > little fragment of a word has to be pondered. > > Then, there is no 'Undo', so that if one accidentally hits 'Replace > All' instead of 'Replace' one might as well just throw away the entire > notebook and start over. > > Then, there is no option to skip Output and just search Input, so > every instance of a symbol that really doesn't need to be corrected > must be considered. > > Then, the Find dialogue drops below the searched notebook whenever one > switches over to do some edits so that unless one has two screens one > is forced to do Ctrl-F again to get it back. > > Then, the dialogue doesn't remember values all the time when switching > back and forth so that if one goes back to Copy some other value, for > a replacement value for example, the first value might revert to > whatever value was there when it opened. > > Then, there is no 'Find First' - a pretty standard operation, no? > > And finally, the layout of the buttons is a bit non-ergonomic and > confusing. Really, if they just copied the Find from another leading > competitor we'd all be better off. > > Am I wrong? > > Bernard > I suspect a lot of the people here, either use Workbench, or do as I do, and have their own find code (activated instead of the built-in version by modifying the MENUSETUP.TR file). I tend to use a lot of extra characters, such as \[Breve], and it is a real pain to include these in a search string using the built-in facility. However, my search box is a small notebook, so I can use all the usual methods to enter these characters. I agree with you, and, more generally, I think Wolfram Research tends make two strategic errors: 1) They ignore convenience features like this, in favour of much more elaborate extensions to the software. 2) They seem to expect everyone to use the Workbench to get the best out of the software. I think this is unreasonable because many experienced users like to continue using a single frontend for everything, and it really is unreasonable to expect beginners to learn two interfaces in order to use Mathematica effectively! David Bailey http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk
From: DrMajorBob on 15 Feb 2010 05:48
No, Bernard, you're exactly right. Bobby On Sun, 14 Feb 2010 04:57:58 -0600, BernieTheJet <berniethejet(a)gmail.com> wrote: > I don't know how many times I have muttered under my breath that > someone should complain about the lousy Find in Mathematica... but now > finally > I have decided to take some action for the greater good of all. > > First, instead of like the Find in other math softwares I use, > Mathematica > requires I hit three (actually six) keys just to do what they do with > a Ctrl-F or an F3 key: Ctrl-C, Ctrl-F, Ctrl-V. Jeez, what a pain. > Why do I have to copy the expression I want to search for myself? > 'F1' somehow is smart enough to select the entire word, why can't > Find? > > Then, there is no 'Find whole word' option. Very annoying. Every > little fragment of a word has to be pondered. > > Then, there is no 'Undo', so that if one accidentally hits 'Replace > All' instead of 'Replace' one might as well just throw away the entire > notebook and start over. > > Then, there is no option to skip Output and just search Input, so > every instance of a symbol that really doesn't need to be corrected > must be considered. > > Then, the Find dialogue drops below the searched notebook whenever one > switches over to do some edits so that unless one has two screens one > is forced to do Ctrl-F again to get it back. > > Then, the dialogue doesn't remember values all the time when switching > back and forth so that if one goes back to Copy some other value, for > a replacement value for example, the first value might revert to > whatever value was there when it opened. > > Then, there is no 'Find First' - a pretty standard operation, no? > > And finally, the layout of the buttons is a bit non-ergonomic and > confusing. Really, if they just copied the Find from another leading > competitor we'd all be better off. > > Am I wrong? > > Bernard > -- DrMajorBob(a)yahoo.com |