Subject: manual cross references (especially for draw)
From: sen1 at math.msu.edu
Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2007 11:43:29 -0400 (EDT)
Hello,
I noticed that there is now a good set of manual pages for the 'draw'
package. Thank you for the package, Mario.
IMO, in many ways already 'draw' (e.g. draw2d, draw3d, etc.)is
superior to plot2d, plot3d, etc. I have students using it to good
advantage. But, new users may not be aware of it.
In the maxima manual for 'plotting' there is no mention about
'draw'. One has to look further down in the list in the additional
packages.
How about adding a line under Plotting (something like)
8. Plotting
8.1 Definitions for Plotting (see also the additional package "draw")
-sen
P.S. This is typical problem. New packages replace some (or all) of
old packages and there is the problem of documentation which does not
confuse the occasional user or the user of older versions.
If one keeps the older and newer( e.g. if the newer is not a complete
replacement, or is not mature), then it makes sense to keep the
'core' documentation fixed and put things in 'additional packages'
However, there may come a time when the newer package has features
which are better than the old.
Some thought should be given to cross-references in the manual pages.
E.g. Robert's numericalio package is not referenced in
"Input-Output" and this has caused several people (myself
included) to ask on the list for numerical I/O commands.
A simple
9.3 Definitions for Input and Output (see also the additional package
"numericalio")
might save some bandwidth and time.
Any thoughts on this?
--
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