Programming

[SteveKeen]

I press control-K and nothing happens.

I'm no fan of the Ribbon bar (one of Microsoft's worst ideas, and that's saying something), but why is there no "Programming" button on the Ribbon bar? At least that might work.

[SteveKeen]

Fortunately the old shortcut of the ] bar does work! Nice to see that there is finally an else... if construct in programming.

The presence of programming makes this alpha much more usable than the preceding beta ... But as noted above the absence of components for handling external data is a real limitation at present.

[SteveKeen]

Just copying some correspondence with Mona here for the sake of completeness:

From Mona:
Steve,

The Help was not updated. To insert a program or a new program line, use ] as in Mathcad 14.
Go to Math tab > Operators and you�ll see the programming operators listed.

My reply:
Thanks Mona,

But this is still a step backwards from M14. With M14, I can have the Programming Toolbox right next to whatever program I'm working on, and it's a one-click operation to insert a new operator. Now I have to go to the Ribbon and it's a two-click operation.

Couldn't there at least be a simile to the old Toolbox that appears when I work in a program? Ironically, because Prime is less "mouse friendly" on this front than M14, I've started to learn the keyboard shortcuts for programming (which I didn't need in M14). Yet another instance of the Ribbon being a step backwards in usability.

[RichardJ]

On 5/3/2010 7:01:36 PM, SteveKeen wrote:
>Ironically, because
>Prime is less "mouse friendly"
>on this front than M14, I've
>started to learn the keyboard
>shortcuts for programming
>(which I didn't need in M14).

It's just like being back in the good old days of DOS!

Richard

[PhilipLeitch]

>Couldn't there at least be a
>simile to the old Toolbox that
>appears when I work in a
>program?

I requested the same thing. I think this feature is essential - programming, logic, solve blocks and other options all need quick access to the few options that are available.

>Yet another instance of the
>Ribbon being a step backwards
>in usability.

Agreed - this is programming to the lowest common denominator. The problem for MS is that half of all people are below average and yet nearly all people use MS programms (like Office). Ribbon is designed to cater to everyone (i.e. the slowest kid in the class can use it).

As much as it pains me to say it, that's understandable on a product that almost everyone has to use (MS Office). Even so, this doesn't make any sense what-so-ever on a tool that is MEANT to be for smarter people.

All that said - I think MCad Prime's Ribbon is relatively usable and not that bad an implementation. We just need to ensure we have the option to have toolbars - dockable or not - rather than having to click several times just to do basic programming tasks.

Philip
___________________
Nobody can hear you scream in Euclidean space.

[mzeftel]

We added the ability to type in the programming operator words, then type Ctrl+J to transform the words into operators.

Mona

[PhilipLeitch]

On 5/4/2010 2:55:20 PM, MonaZ wrote:
>We added the ability to type
>in the programming operator
>words, then type Ctrl+J to
>transform the words into
>operators.
>
>Mona

Brilliant.

This is going to help.

But please take note that this doesn't seem to work for "else" or "elseif".

I'll log it as an issue and send it to you.


Philip
___________________
Nobody can hear you scream in Euclidean space.

[mzeftel]

You can only enter else and elseif after an if operator or another elseif as they are part of the same construct.

We did this because in earlier versions of Mathcad, users reported that it was difficult to sort out which if condition and result belonged together.

Try typing else and elseif after you've already inserted an if, and it should work. I just tested it.

Mona

[MikeArmstrong]

On 5/4/2010 12:44:56 AM, pleitch wrote:
>We just need
>to ensure we have the option
>to have toolbars - dockable or
>not - rather than having to
>click several times just to do
>basic programming tasks.
>
>Philip
>___________________
>Nobody can hear you scream in
>Euclidean space.

Agree with this totally.

Regards

Mike