MathGroup Archive 1997

[Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index]

Search the Archive

RE: Re: Book recommendation for

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg9673] RE: [mg9632] Re: Book recommendation for
  • From: Ersek_Ted%PAX1A at mr.nawcad.navy.mil
  • Date: Fri, 21 Nov 1997 01:31:10 -0500
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

cwhite at cruzio.com  wrote:
|

|I purchased Roman Maeders book "Programming In Mathematica," third
|edition.  I find it to be a very poor book for a beginner.  There was
|no warning on the cover that this is a book only for experienced
users, |programmers, and mathematicians.  Maeder states in the preface
that |"The best way to teach Mathematica-specific programming methods
is to |look at examples of complete programs that solve some nontrivial
|problem."  The "nontrivial" component of his statement reveals a
deeply |flawed pedagogical ideal that pervades his book.  "Trivial" is
exactly |what examples should be.
|
  I wouldn't want to see *trivial* examples.  Instead I would want
examples that are easy for most undergraduates (in technical fields) to
understand. |
|
|  I'm also interested
|in "An Introduction to Programming with Mathematica," Second Edition by
|Richard J. Gaylord, Samuel N.  Kamin, and Paul R. Wellin.  But the
|www.wolfram.com website neglects to mention whether or not this book
is |inclusive of version 3.x.  Since it is not stated, I assume it is
not |and will not buy it.
|
   I bet the book would still be very useful.  A book for Version 2.x
will  cover all
the important principles of Mathematica.  Version 3.0 has no new
programming 

methods that a beginner needs to know about.  Yes, Version 3.0 does have
new programming principles to format Cells and format 2D expressions,
but a beginner is better off staying away from those areas.

If you had a book on how to use an old version Word Perfect, it would be
of  little
use in helping you with the current version.  But it's different with 
Mathematica.
With Mathematicac you can run 98% of the commands in the book using
Version 3.0 and get essentially the same result.  There are important 
differences
in Version 3.0 such as when you enter an expression like   1/(3+Sqrt[x])

  the result
is now displayed as you would see it in a text book, but you don't need
a  book to
help you understand this.  In other cases Mathematica has improvements
that cause it to give results different than before.  For example  
(1/Pi) < 1 
  used to
get returned without a solution, but now it returns True.  No learning
curve  there
either.

Sure it takes some effort to learn how to use Mathematica, and I think
some introductory books about Version 2.x  could be very useful.

Want a book about programming Mathematica?  I have Power Programming
With Mathematica The Kernal By David Wagner

Some of the content is very advanced, but I think it also has a lot of 
information
that is valuable to a beginner as well as the experienced user.  However
I  can't say
how readable it is for a beginner.  I bought the book after I was deep
into Mathematica for seven years.  I got a lot from it, but maybe it
would have  been
different if I was a beginner.  Also a large portion of the book is
still  beyond my grasp.
Very Deep!!

     Ted Ersek
     ersek_ted%pax1a at mr.nawcad.navy.mil



  • Prev by Date: Re: Fractal Plane Filling Curves
  • Next by Date: Re: Need help to a beginner.
  • Previous by thread: Re: Book recommendation for
  • Next by thread: Re: Book recommendation for