Subject: another version of documentation category stuff
From: Vadim V. Zhytnikov
Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 09:53:52 +0300
Robert Dodier writes:
> On Nov 20, 2007 12:24 PM, Vadim V. Zhytnikov <vvzhy at mail.ru> wrote:
>
>>> Well, the distinction is that flags have true/false or enumerated
>>> values, and variables are everything else.
>> I know this difference but don't think that difference between
>> variable which can take values false/true and variable which
>> take values false/true/all is worth separating them
>> in different classes?
>
> I'm afraid you're mistaken (or I've misunderstood what you are
> claiming). Since false/true/all is an enumeration, such a variable
> falls in the same class as a true/false variable.
>
>> I think the difference is clear and is more important than
>> difference between flag/switch and more general option variable.
>> Roughly "Option variables" are IN global variables
>> and "System variables" are OUT ones.
>
> Hmm, that's not what I would have guessed ...
>
>> Let's write glossary to explain all these terms.
>
> Instead of a glossary, which is typically a list of terms apart from
> the rest of the documentation, it would be better to just put some
> descriptive text in each category's box. Such text could include an
> explanation about why the category is constituted as it is.
>
> Descriptive text per-category can't be handled by the existing
> scripts; it would not be a lot of work, but I don't think it can be done
> before the 5.14 release branch.
>
You see, we have different notions of various Maxima terms
inside our heads. But as long as they are not described
somewhere in Maxima documentation they are just
our private ideas. I expect to have some discussion
about Maxima terminology. I don't mind to have descriptive
texts in categories but having both such texts
and the glossary with description of all
significant terms in one place will not hurt.
I'll be happy to help with documentation improvement
but only after Russian translation is finished which
probably will be after 5.15.
--
Vadim V. Zhytnikov
<vvzhy at mail.ru>
<vvzhy at netorn.ru>