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Mathematica Newsgroup Proposal

• To: mathgroup at christensen.cybernetics.net
• Subject: [mg253] Mathematica Newsgroup Proposal
• From: steve at christensen.cybernetics.net (Steve Christensen)
• Date: Thu, 1 Dec 1994 01:02:17 +0500

MathGroup:

MathGroup has been growing very quickly since it was restarted and
the number of mail messages and members is getting very large.  I 
continue to upgrade my network link, but even that will not be enough
to handle the traffic.  Many members of the group have requested
that I form a net newsgroup.  After many months of discussion with
the newsgroup advisors who handle the creation of moderated newsgroups, I
have just posted the Request For Discussion (RFD) appended below
to the newsgroups indicated.  This effort now appears to have the
support of the advisors and WRI.

I request that those of you who wish to be involved in the discussion
and support for the formation of this group, do so in the usual
net way as indicated in the RFD.  If all goes well and the group
is eventually voted in (probably in early 1995), I will be able to
serve a larger audience in a more convenient way.  For those who
still wish to get MathGroup via email, that will continue.  All
mail and newsgroup postings will go both places.

Note also that the MathGroup archives can now be reached via the Web
and Mosaic, etc.  I have created a Web page for MathGroup that points
to the MathGroup archive on MathSource at WRI.  It is at

http://christensen.cybernetics.net/MathGroup.html

All the pages at this site are still being construction so bear with
me.  If the network link is down or overwhelmed please go directly
to MathSource directly.

Comments are welcome.

Steve Christensen
----------

-------------------------------------------------------------
REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD): COMP.SOFT-SYS.MATH.MATHEMATICA
-------------------------------------------------------------

Group name:             comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica
Status:                 Moderated
Summary:                Discussion of all topics related to the
                        software system Mathematica (R) and related
                        packages, third party products, notebooks, and
			programs.
Proposed by:            Steven M. Christensen 
Contact Address:	steve at christensen.cybernetics.net
Cross-Posted to:        news.announce.newsgroups
                        news.groups
                        sci.math.symbolic
                        MathGroup - Mathematica email mailing list
		        (Email: mathgroup at christensen.cybernetics.net)
		        (Web: http://christensen.cybernetics.net/MathGroup.html)
Distribution:           world

This is a formal request for discussion (RFD) of the creation of a
USENET newsgroup comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: An effort is underway to reorganize the comp.soft-sys groups
into subgroups covering specific categories of software systems.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

ALL discussion will take place in the news.groups newsgroup.  All
follow-up posts should go to that group.  Details on the proposed
structure of this moderated group are presented below.  All interested
parties are encouraged to participate in this discussion.

The discussion will take place for 30 days following the date of this
posting.  If there are no changes or other outstanding issues at that
time, I will call for votes (CFV) to be taken by an independent third
party.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


Charter
-------

	The new newsgroup comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica is proposed to
	combine the very active discussion on the Mathematica program
	from Wolfram Research, Inc. now taking place in various
	newsgroups, in particular, sci.math.symbolic, but also groups
	covering topics in numerics, languages, graphics, research,
	physics, desktop publishing and so forth and the Mathematica
	mailing list - called MathGroup - currently being run by S.
	Christensen.  The moderator would "filter" out questions about
	pricing, availability, and other postings not of general
	interest and focus the discussion on programming, algorithms,
	packages, notebooks, and third party programs.  Help with all
	manner of package design and debugging will also be provided.

	The newsgroup will be linked to the MathGroup mailing list.

Rationale
_________

	Many computer mathematics programs now exist and are being
	discussed in the sci.math.symbolic newsgroup or in groups like
	comp.soft-sys.matlab and many other newsgroups or separate
	mailing lists.  Readers of these groups are often exposed to
	long technical discussions of systems they are not using or to
	questions that might better be sent to the vendor.

	Sci.math.symbolic was originally intended for discussion of
	"deeper" issues regarding algorithms for symbolic computing and
	related mathematical and computer science issues and not for
	the details of any given vendor or developer's functions,
	features, or bugs.  A very large number of postings about the
	Mathematica software are now finding their way to
	sci.math.symbolic.

	The Mathematica mailing list - started six years ago after the
	introduction of Mathematica by S. Christensen - has been so
	active that many members (numbering in the many thousands now)
	have asked for the formation of a USENET newsgroup on
	Mathematica.  Since this mailing list is independent of Wolfram
	Research - though the vendor does participate in the
	discussions - constructive criticism has been permitted as well
	as praise.

        The "flame wars" between rival vendors will be avoided.

        The combined postings from both of these groups would create a
        very active newsgroup and provide a place for focused
        discussion.  Moderation will keep out questions that should go
        directly to the vendors or are so simple or esoteric as
        to not be of interest to a general audience.

        The group name is chosen to emphasize that systems for doing
        mathematics by computer now do much more than symbolic
        algebra and calculus and are used not only in the so-called
        mathematical sciences, but in engineering, graphics, medicine,
        social sciences, financial applications, databases, and many
        other areas.  The comp.soft-sys.math groups would be similar in form
        to comp.ai, comp.cad, comp.databases, comp.graphics, comp.lang,
        and others.  The sci.math groups are more appropriate for
        discussion of algorithmic and other deep theoretical issues.

        With Mathematica now having approximately one million
        users and with over 80 books published on the software
        and its applications in many areas, there is a very large
        audience for such a focused newsgroup.

Other Details
-------------

        There has also been a call for the creation of a FAQ for
        Mathematica.  As part of the creation of a newsgroup, a FAQ
        will be produced and maintained.  It will be posted to the
        group monthly and also archived on MathSource and other FAQ
        archives.

        Commercial advertising related to Mathematica from software
        vendors, publishers, etc. will be permitted in a very limited
        fashion.

        The postings to the newsgroup will be archived on MathSource
        which is the main archive for all Mathematica related public
        information.  Archives at other sites may also be done.

        Backup moderators and posting sites are being considered.


--------------------------------------------
Steven M. Christensen
PO Box 16175
Chapel Hill, NC 27516 USA
Phone/Fax: 919-967-9853
Email: steve at christensen.cybernetics.net
--------------------------------------------







From villegas Thu Dec  1 19:13:32 1994
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Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="========================_15593100==_"
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 1994 13:13:32 -0600
To: wri-frontend at wri.com
From: villegas
Subject: crash log, Function Browser



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Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

With MacsBug again working on my machine, I can get some crash logs for
the new front-end.

The following log was taken after I had brought up the Function Browser
entry for N.  The crash happened when I tried to scroll down a couple
lines in that entry.

Robby




--========================_15593100==_
Content-Type: text/plain; name="crash.scroll"; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="crash.scroll"

Address Error at 000148F0
 68040 Registers
  D0 = FFFF0000      A0 = 011C129C       USP  = 010CC528
  D1 = FFFF0000      A1 = 0000014A       MSP  = 00000000
  D2 = 010D0011      A2 = 00015C8E       ISP  = 011C12A8
  D3 = 00000000      A3 = 000115E0       VBR  = 00015280
  D4 = 00002004      A4 = 00010002       CACR = 80008000     SFC = 0
  D5 = 001FF000      A5 = 01179EB8                           DFC = 1
  D6 = 00002704      A6 = 00000000       PC   = 000148F0
  D7 = 00000001      A7 = 011C12A8       SR   = SmXnzvc      Int = 7
 Start of link chain does not point to a stack frame
 Bad stack: stack pointer must be even and <= stack base
 The Application heap at 00BDDC00 is ok
 Closing log



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