[Libreoffice] Formula cursor : bug or feature ?

[Jonas Finnemann Jensen]

Hi Regina,

> It is only difficult for people, who do not get a starting instruction.
True... I would assume that most users are not given an introduction course...
In most schools students are given an introduction to MS Word and MathType.
If an introduction is given, it's quite often assume that people can use word...

But we need to find a balance between easy-to-learn and fast-to-use.
At the moment it requires quite a lot of effort to learn it...
Hench my reference to vim/emacs... I mean it would be faster to write
the text in LibreOffice if it had a vim-mode. But LibreOffice don't
have a vim-mode because of the learning curve.

I'm hoping the sensible shortcuts and perhaps (this is on my
"dream"-list) inline auto-completion for supporting commands in the
visual formula editor... could improve the efficiency of the visual
formula editor.

> Ordinary office users do not need the formula editor at all. But all of those who write scientific texts.
Hmm... You might be right about that one.... :)
 - I thought everybody needed to write scientific texts, at least
that's how I think the world ought to be :)

> One feature is already lost. I fear more regressions.
If you disable experimental features, everything is back to normal.
And position and selection synchronization "can" be fixed before this
feature is enabled by default...
Assuming someone cares to implement it... and you're are welcome to
step up to the plate :)

I hope we can agree that a visual editor, where the old command text
interface is still available, is a good idea... And a great
improvement to many users... Especially those migrating from Microsoft
Office.

--
Regards Jonas Finnemann Jensen.



On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 19:31, Regina Henschel <rb.henschel at t-online.de> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Jonas Finnemann Jensen schrieb:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>>> Well, how say that kindly ? ;-) :
>>> For me the main advantage of Math module is that it is *not* like
>>> MathType.
>>
>> I agree that for some people, power users, the command text interface
>> might be faster to use...
>> But it's next to impossible to convince normal users to sit down and
>> learn a command language.
>> (Most non-programmers can hardly set brackets for parsing correctly).
>
> I disagree. I have teached the formula essentials including command line in
> school in 20 min to 17 age old pupils and in 80 min to 14 age old pupils
> without problems. It is only difficult for people, who do not get a starting
> instruction.
>
>>
>> But, there's no plans to remove the old command text interface...
>> And loss of the square cursor is probably not a problem for power users :)
>
> It is loss of a useful tool. In the old kind double clicking an object in
> the view will selects it in the command line. That is very useful to look
> about in large complex command lines. (For example writing a matrix equation
> leads to commands over several lines.)
>
>>
>>> Ok, we do not have the same definition of "user friendly". :-)
>>
>> I'll admit that I haven't done a usability study on the subject...
>>  - Those things are utterly boring to do :)
>> But if the target group is ordinary office users, and a course in
>> formula writing isn't a prerequisite, I can pretty much guess the
>> result...
>
> Ordinary office users do not need the formula editor at all. But all of
> those who write scientific texts.
>
>> I'm not saying that the command text interface isn't faster and easier
>> to use once you've learned it... (But so is vim and emacs).
>>
>> Anyway, command text interface is not disappearing... So you have
>> nothing to fear...
>
> One feature is already lost. I fear more regressions.
>
> kind regards
> Regina
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