MathGroup Archive 1992

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What should Mma be

  • To: mathgroup at yoda.physics.unc.edu
  • Subject: What should Mma be
  • From: Pekka.Janhunen at fmi.fi
  • Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 12:45:34 -0800

Hello mathgroup,

Yet another opinion on the subject ...

I see no reason why WRI should not also develop the presentation
capabilities. Warren J. Wiscombe expressed his concerns about Mma becoming
a 'Symphony of the 90s'. But we must think that the Mma kernel plays the
role of an operating system like Unix, not an application. The
'applications' are individual Mma functions, whether in the kernel or
written in Mma itself. In this sense, Mma already automatically obeys the
small-tool philosophy of Kernighan et al. Keeping the system of modest size
is only a practical issue, and I think that as WRI anyway has a number of
people involved in developing Mma, both presentation and the algorithmics
can (and must) be improved at the same time.

For example, as pointed out by many, there is a real and everyday need for
the production of Greek symbols and super/subscripts in plot/axis labels
etc. These should be properly implemented as soon as possible.

Pekka Janhunen







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