| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 906.1 | Wolframica. | PBSVAX::COOPER | Topher Cooper | Mon Jul 25 1988 15:41 | 46 |
| I'm currently reading the general documentation (Mathematica (TM)
A System for Doing Mathematics by Computer by Stephen Wolfram,
published by Addison-Wesley). In the back are Mathematica (TM)
Information Request Cards -- which seem to be largely a way of
surveying the potential users for what they want to be developed
(there is, for example, a question on the card "Send information
about Availability of Mathematica on:" and then a checklist of about
30 systems plus "other" and a warning that inclusion of a system
on the list does not mean that it actually exists. VAXen are included
and I understand that DEC is currently investigating whether or
not we should port/support it).
The address on the cards is Wolfram Research, Inc. PO Box 6059;
Champaign, IL 61821-9902.
From this document, the basic algebraic manipulation facilities
seem about the same as Maple, *perhaps* a hair better (I'd have
to use them in practice to be sure). There is no way I can
judge how well it actually does things like integration and expression
simplification since the author will, of course, pick "good" examples.
Speed is also important for many uses and unjudgeable from the book.
The graphics output capabilities seem outstanding, and the interface
for the Mac, as briefly described, makes my mouth water (assuming
they did a good job of implementing what they describe). Wolfram
Research is only responsible for the Mac interface -- they liscence
out the system to others for development on other systems; so
the quality of the interface is an open question; they hint that
the interface can be expected to be similar on some of the other
systems, so they may make their interface code available to liscencees
for adaptation to other systems. One nice feature is that the
interface and core-system are decoupled making it possible to
run the Mac interface with (if it is developed) a VAX workstation
or mainframe for the crunching (this decoupling is also a feature
of the current release of Maple, which is not yet available for
VAX/VMS).
Is it worth it? Depends on how much formula-crunching you do,
how useful the graphs and other neat features are to you, and how
adequate Maple on VMS (which, as a DEC employee is available to
you free) is to your needs. Its a decision I'm also going to
have to make (another factor is how much this will fill up my
Mac's hard disk -- am I going to have to add the price of another
or bigger hard disk to the cost?).
Topher
|
| 906.2 | About Stephen Wolfram | HPSTEK::XIA | | Mon Jul 25 1988 18:54 | 15 |
| Stephen Wolfram is one of those child prodigy. He is pretty big
in U of I. When I was there I made an appointment with him and
he talked to me for about an hour. I was kinda flattered considering
many not so hot shot professors usually kick me out after 15mins
:-). Quite a nice fellow. Later I sat in one of his classes for
a while. In my opinion, he is about the worst teacher there is :-).
The guy is really into chaos and cellular automata and is the director
of the Center for Complex Systems Research at U of I. Very smart
guy, but I think he is wasting his talent on the stuff (but hay
whom am I to judge). The guy told me that he can write with average
of one bug every three hundred lines in C. Quite impressive. You might
be able to reach him at DECWRL::"wolfram@uiccsr.ccsr.uiuc.edu" (Note
this is a wild guess based on the knowledge of how U of I set up
its computer network :-).
|
| 906.3 | Once upon a time there was SMP | AKQJ10::YARBROUGH | I prefer Pi | Tue Jul 26 1988 13:40 | 19 |
| Wolfram is one of the major contributors to SMP (Symbolic Manipulation
Program), a competitor to MACSYMA and MAPLE. There used to be a copy of SMP
up on HOUSE:: or somewhere else in MRO and I have run a couple of things
on it. Someone in LCG Marketing probably knows where it is now.
Anyhow, if SMP is an example of Wolfram's vaunted coding ability then I
would suggest reading some of the critiques of SMP, which in its earlier
releases was full of outrageous bugs. Marketing rights to SMP were bought
by Inference Corp. in 1983 - I have not seen any advertising of SMP in a
couple of years, nor do I know whether Inf. Co. put out an updated version
with the bugs fixed; and I wonder if they went belly up - anyone know?
My guess is that the Mathematica system is an outgrowth of SMP, which is
basically a good idea if it can be implemented on a nice cheap machine and
can be shaken down carefully, and $495 a shot is not so much if it really
works well, but I would look VERY carefully before investing that much for
myself.
Lynn Yarbrough
|
| 906.4 | Judge it on its own merits. | PBSVAX::COOPER | Topher Cooper | Tue Jul 26 1988 15:24 | 29 |
| I was unimpressed with SMP when I played with it for a while. The
user interface was clumsy, ideosyncratic and strange (e.g., indefinite
integration was a special case of definite integration (no I didn't
say that backwards) with a function pulled out of the air to be
used as the upper limit of integration to make the whole thing
work out right. I could accept this as clever, but the documentation
just assumed that it was the obvious definition of things and left
it to the reader to figure out what was going on).
Its important to keep in mind several things, however: (1) however much
Wolfram is being used for his publicity value and however much
he is the driving force behind the system, both SMP and Mathematica
are products of teams; (2) I think I was still working in the Mill
when I first saw SMP -- I think that makes it at least 9 years old.
Wolfram (according to his bio in the Mathematica book) was born
in 1959, so it was *released* when he was 20. However, bright no
20 year old has the experience for that type of thing. The decade
or so since he worked on it is important; (3) The interface, anyway,
according to the documentation, is much cleaner.
I think we can safely discount SMP, except insofar as Wolfram may
have learned from his mistakes. We should judge this on the same
basis as any other over-hyped symbolic algebra system, without holding
SMP against it. (That does mean that you should be convinced --
preferably by some hands on experience, but alternatevely by
independent trusted review -- that it will do, whatever its overall
quality, what *you* need it to do, before you plunk down your money).
Topher
|
| 906.5 | It's official... | AKQJ10::YARBROUGH | I prefer Pi | Fri Oct 20 1989 18:56 | 136 |
|
************* Date : October 19, 1989
D i g i t a l From : Stephen Harrington
************* Dept : LDP/Science Marketing
Ext : 297-4268
Loc : MRO4-2/C17
TO: MATHEMATICA INTEREST LIST
CC: Robert Nilsson
SUBJECT: DIGITAL TO DISTRIBUTE MATHEMATICA FROM WOLFRAM RESEARCH
INC. THE RISC/ULTRIX VERSION OF MATHEMATICA IS ORDERABLE END OF
NOVEMBER.
Digital Equipment Corporation and Wolfram Research Inc. have signed a
Digital Distributed Software (DDS) agreement, whereby Digital will
distribute Mathematica.
Mathematica, a software system for doing mathematics by computer,
quickly solves problems which were once beyond reach without extensive
mathematics expertise and massive computer resources. It lets the
user easily perform numerical, symbolic and algebraic computations -
from the simplest to highly complex and represent results with
sophisticated graphical plots.
Because of the tremendous popularity of Mathematica, this is an
excellent opportunity to leverage workstation sales. Mathematica
provides powerful tools across multiple industries [primarily in
Government, Education, Aerospace and Financial Services] for the
following users:
o researchers o scientists o educators o students
o engineers o financial analysts o economist o physicists
o computer scientists
Ship dates :
Mathematica RISC ULTRIX January
Mathematica VAX ULTRIX February
Mathematica VMS TBD
For further information, contact the Digital Mathematica product
manager, Paul Hojlo, 264-5893, 603-884-5893, or Mary Raczkowski,
264-3753, 603-884-3753. (A Sales Update article on Mathematica to
follow.)
PRESS RELEASE
**********************************************************************
Steven Guthrie
Digital Equipment Corporation
(508) 467-2332
Patti Carlson
Wolfram Research, Inc.
(217) 398-0700
DIGITAL SIGNS DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT
FOR REVOLUTIONARY MATHEMATICS SOFTWARE
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- October 16, 1989 -- Digital Equipment
Corporation today announced a distributed software agreement with
Wolfram Research, Inc. of Champaign, Ill., at a press briefing at
the Educom conference for colleges and universities.
Under terms of the distribution license, Digital is granted
the right to sell and support Wolfram's popular Mathematica
software system for its entire line of VAX and RISC computer
systems.
The agreement enables Digital to add the full weight of its
sales, marketing, technical support and distribution organizations
to the selling cycle for Mathematica, a software product which has
received wide acceptance since it was introduced on personal
computers in June 1988.
Mathematica is a powerful mathematical computation system.
The software package allows its users to perform interactive
numerical, symbolic and graphical computations. It also
incorporates a high-level programming language and applications
generator.
Pricing, product specifications and availability from Digital
will be announced later this year.
- more -
DIGITAL SIGNS DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT
FOR REVOLUTIONARY MATHEMATICS SOFTWARE
page 2
"We are very excited about having Mathematica in the
Digital product line because it offers the same technological
leap that calculators spearheaded 20 years ago," said Gary
Eichhorn, Digital vice president for the Laboratory Data
Products Group. "We believe Mathematica will revolutionize the
way mathematics is used worldwide in education, engineering,
research and commerce."
"We hope through this agreement Digital's long-standing
leadership in academic, technical and scientific computing will
help us to deliver Mathematica to many thousands of desktops
around the world," said Steven Wolfram, developer of
Mathematica and founder of Wolfram Research.
Wolfram Research was founded in 1987 and is based in
Champaign, IL. The company is privately held, and currently
has more than 80 employees.
Digital Equipment Corporation, headquartered in Maynard,
Massachusetts, is the leading worldwide supplier of networked
computer systems and services. Digital offers a full range of
computing solutions and systems integration for the entire
enterprise -- from the desktop to the data center.
####
Note to Editors: VAX is a trademarks of Digital Equipment
Corporation.
Mathematica is a registered trademark of
Wolfram Research, Inc.
CORP/90/666
|
| 906.6 | MS-DOS/PC Demo Version | VNABRW::LATZELSPERGE | V M S is not a rockband ! | Fri Apr 26 1991 06:19 | 4 |
| MATHEMATICA is also available for MS-Dos PC's. Is there a demo version
on the network ?
Bruno
|
| 906.7 | | RUSURE::EDP | Always mount a scratch monkey. | Wed Dec 30 1992 13:20 | 7 |
| Wolfram wants $475 for Mathematica, even at the student rate. I had
thought I had seen a better student deal advertised, e.g., on a card
that came with a mathematics textbook. Does anybody else recall
something like that?
-- edp
|
| 906.8 | iam not going to use MMA any more | STAR::ABBASI | only 63 days left to graduate ! | Thu Oct 14 1993 04:54 | 15 |
| i am not a happy camper right now, MMA not only crashes every time
i tell it to integrate this
y exp(-y)
from 0 to oo, but it also hangs the PC and one must restart the whole
machine.
this is only one of many bugs in MMA, iam soory i bought it, i have the
student version which i paid for 180 bucks or so. i should have
bought Maple instead :(
\nasser
ps. any one wants to buy MMA very cheap let me know :)
|
| 906.9 | | AUSSIE::GARSON | Hotel Garson: No Vacancies | Fri Oct 15 1993 01:23 | 18 |
| re .8
>MMA not only crashes every time i tell it to integrate this
>
> y exp(-y)
>
> from 0 to oo, but it also hangs the PC and one must restart the whole
> machine.
Maybe it's not integrable. (-:
What is the answer anyway?
> this is only one of many bugs in MMA, iam soory i bought it, i have the
> student version which i paid for 180 bucks or so. i should have
> bought Maple instead :(
So take it back and get a refund?
|
| 906.10 | | STAR::ABBASI | only 62 days left to graduate | Fri Oct 15 1993 02:25 | 23 |
| ref .-1
>Maybe it's not integrable. (-:
>What is the answer anyway?
|\^/| MAPLE V
._|\| |/|_. Copyright (c) 1981-1991 by the University of Waterloo.
\ MAPLE / All rights reserved. MAPLE is a registered trademark of
<____ ____> Waterloo Maple Software.
| Type ? for help.
> int(y*exp(-y),y=0..infinity);
1
> So take it back and get a refund?
iam trying, the problem i had it for more than 30 days. but
hopefully i cant return it.
\nasser
|
| 906.12 | | STAR::ABBASI | only 51 days left... | Sun Oct 24 1993 01:44 | 8 |
| update: i was able to return my MMA package to the store.
at first they did not want to take it, when i started
crying the manager said ok and they gave me my money :)
i am happy now. next time i'll buy MAPLE for sure.
\bye
\nasser
|