Thanks for the response, by the way!

Thanks for the input. These are activities that we are definitely looking at, but I can’t comment on what that might look like or when we would provide that kind of functionality.

@Ken,
Thanks for fielding that one.

You should be able to use the more command to keep the help from scrolling by.

Since I no longer work at The MathWorks, I’ll let Mike comment on your second and third comments.

-Ken

First, I must say, I wholeheartedly agree that user interfaces are better than pure command line interfaces. I also appreciate the work you guys do in making the MATLAB command interface a pleasure to use for both novices and professionals alike.

I just have a couple minor suggestions for improvement into the future.

First, when I type “help “, why does the user have to scroll back up to read the help text? If the help text is several screens long, the user will only see the bottom screen of the help text and will have to scroll back up to see the beginning. This can be cumbersome if there is a lot of junk in the command window already.

Second, I’d love to have the ability to delete a particular command (and its output!) from the command window. For example, a common mistake is generating a large matrix and forgetting to put in the semicolon, which results in all the previous output being obliterated or just hiding somewhere where it’s hard to find again. Of course, the command history window is very helpful in cases like these, but it doesn’t solve all the problems because you can’t see the *output* of those commands without running them again.

I think what this all comes down to is somehow integrating the “cell mode” feature in the editor window into the command window; or perhaps mimicking the Mathematica interface, which I’m a great fan of. This probably means getting rid of the plain old text-only control that is currently being used for the command window, and instead integrating richer features such as being able to right click on the output of some command and getting options like “Suppress Output”, or “Undo Action”, or “Re-evaluate”, among others.

Has the dev team considered a cell-based interface for the command window? What are the thoughts on this?

What are the keyboard shortcuts you use most often? What operations do wish there were shortcuts for?

I can appreciate your desire for a true Mac user interface. As a Mac user myself, I am constantly striving to help improve the fidelity of our product on the Mac platform.

As you can imagine, this won’t happen over night. Slowly but surely, your going to see more of what you expect from a user interface experience on the Mac.

If you’re doubting Java’s ability to provide a true Mac experience, I encourage you to check out my personal blog, where I explore this very subject.

I’m glad we have users that are passionate about the Mac.

-Ken

you are neglecting your users

Your absolutely right – keyboard shortcuts in MATLAB is an area that could use some improvement. Good news, though – we are working on this! For now, check out the following MATLAB references for a listing of keyboard shortcuts:

General shortcuts
Command window shortcuts
Editor shortcuts

However, using a mouse in an environment like Matlab where most work is done from the keyboard is something I find to be quite a nusance. I also find that the keyboard shortcuts in matlab are poorly documented. I had for example used matlab daily for 3 years before I found out abut Ctrl+pgUp/PgDown to change windows within the editor.

So that is my beef. Feel free to improve the GUI (and you really have) but make sure those shortcuts are kept up-to-date and documented.

–DA