Re: Version 3 vs Version 4
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg19685] Re: Version 3 vs Version 4
- From: Jens-Peer Kuska <kuska at informatik.uni-leipzig.de>
- Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 16:35:57 -0400
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Hi Laster, Mathematica 4 is a good investment. First of all many bugs where removed. Second the speed of numerical calculations is increased by an order of magnitude. As a student you will probably use Mathematica for several not only symbolic tasks and you will benefit from the new numeric speed. The new packed arrays need less memory for numeric data sets, and you can not only process the data faster, you can store also more of it. The Solve[] function for sets of nonlinear equations now returns the correct results and finds more solutions. The third improvement of Mathematica 4 are the Element[] relation for Simplify[] and friends. It was always a hard work to tell Mathematica 3.0 that Sin[n*Pi] is 0 for an integer n, this problem is now gone. Typical a computer algebra will create huge expressions and any better simplification will help. If you ever seen the new numeric speed of Mathematica 4, you will have it as soon as possible. Hope that helps Jens Chris Lasater wrote: > > I am a math student who currently uses Mathematica 3. I noticed when buying > books that version 4 is currently available. After attempting to find a > good review, I could not find one. Can anyone advise me on weather or not > Mathematica 4 is a good investment, or if I should just stick with version > 3. > > Thank you > > Chris