Re: spell checking and search woes

On Friday 24 February 2006 11:07, Tom Cloyd wrote:
> Say that I want to spell check an 18 page document I've just written in  
> Amaya (this was the case last night). I already know that I can't predict  
> what will happen when I push F7 to start the spell check function.  
> Sometimes it just won't work. Other times it immediately opens the  
> structure window and starts checking the text in THAT window (WHAT???  
> WHY?? I don't want this at all. What just happened? < - that's what I'm  
> thinking at this point.) It's so simple: when I press F7 I want a spell  
> check of the text in the window which currently has focus. Nothing more,  
> nothing less. I do NOT want something strange and unexpected to happen.  
> Why can't I have this? Too often I just give up, load my web page into  
> another editor and use that, because it simply always works like I expect  
> it to work. Why doesn't Amaya give me this experience?

When there is no selection, Amaya starts from the beginning of the document, 
so It could check the document title, and keywords in the head, then it 
checks also comments.
As I understand you request to start from the top of the document body and to 
skip comments?

> Next, I want to do a search of my text. What's my expectation? That I'm  
> going to have to do too much thinking, and that maybe I'll get it to work,
>   but just as often I won't. Too often. The search function opens with
> "Checking...after selection" as the default option checked. WHY???? No
> other program I use does this. I practically NEVER want this. I cannot
> imagine why I would. I have to grab my mouse and correct this nonsense
> ('check the whole document, for Pete's sake!!!'), and then what usually
> happens is...nothing at all. It just won't work. I cannot explain this. I
> have NO idea what's going wrong. Worse, I cannot image how the program
> could be working like this at this point in its development. I'm just
> baffled by this. These functions as so basic to program function.

Do you suggest to start alway from the top of the page?

> If you're thinking at this point, "he just doesn't understand, so let's  
> explain it to him", you're headed the wrong direction. The goal is to not  
> HAVE to explain, with very basic functions like spell check and search, is
>   it not? It's like web site navigation - if it's not obvious how to work
> it, then the design's wrong. It has to be obvious. End of discussion.
>
> I don't know why I keep having problems. It cannot be that I don't "get"  
> computers. I've programmed for years - Fortran, Basic, Pascal, Python,  
> Ruby. I'm not a pro, but I usually get the job done. I've been wrangling  
> my own web sites for years, which is why I so much appreciate having Amaya
>   to work on my most current one - http://tc.bestmindhealth.com/ At this
> point I expect not to have to fight with the programs I use. Amaya excels,
> compared to the other editors I use, in a number of areas. But, in spell
> check and search - oh my god, please tell me what I see isn't true. But,
> I'm afraid it is.
>
> Please, is there any chance this can be fixed in the near future?

-- 
     Irène.
-----
Irène Vatton                     INRIA Rhône-Alpes
INRIA                               ZIRST
e-mail: Irene.Vatton@inria.fr       655 avenue de l'Europe
Tel.: +33 4 76 61 53 61             Montbonnot
Fax:  +33 4 76 61 52 07             38334 Saint Ismier Cedex - France

Received on Tuesday, 7 March 2006 10:54:53 UTC