On Wednesday, June 13, 2012 1:39:27 AM UTC+8, John H Palmieri wrote: > > > > On Tuesday, June 12, 2012 10:01:39 AM UTC-7, P Purkayastha wrote: >> >> >> >> On Wednesday, June 13, 2012 12:40:47 AM UTC+8, kcrisman wrote: >>> >>> >>> >>> On Tuesday, June 12, 2012 12:06:11 PM UTC-4, Keshav Kini wrote: >>>> >>>> Chris Hall writes: >>>> > The command line is great when I have a few quick commands, but I >>>> find it >>>> > painful for developing multi-line methods (i.e. 'coding'). >>>> >>>> Do you know about %edit? Just type %edit on the command line, and it >>>> will open a temporary file in an editor where you can craft a method, >>>> class, or whatever. When you save the temporary file and quit the >>>> editor, Sage will load the file into the interpreter and then delete >>>> it. >>>> (This functionality is built into IPython.) >>> >>> >> All these hidden functionalities should be exposed to the user IMHO. >> > > They are exposed to the user in the sense that you can access them with a > single command, like "%edit" (as opposed to having to do 'from foo import > bar' and then 'bar.edit()'). They are also exposed to the user in the sense > that they are documented in the Sage tutorial: see < > http://sagemath.org/doc/tutorial/interactive_shell.html#other-ipython-tricks>. > > What else did you have in mind? >
What I had in mind was for them to be more discoverable. Like this %hide functionality is actually a cell UI functionality and it could be baked into the cell structure (like having a minimize or cell close button). The %edit functionality could be mapped to a "Popup" icon, which opens your custom editor with the current cell contents. Backspace on an empty cell deletes the cell. But give any new person a worksheet to work with and one of the first questions you will hear is how he/she can delete cells. These are various minor things that those of us who have been using the worksheet for a long time just take for granted, because we are used to it. It really helps if a new user can discover/use the functionalities without having to resort to manuals (as much as possible). The new user is already having to learn Sage commands and syntax and just wants things to work initially. I know because I myself didn't find out many things until someone actually pointed them out to me. Current method of using commands with % to change UI functionality is not optimal IMHO. I think Samuel's work is going to address some of the UI issues. -- To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-support URL: http://www.sagemath.org
