Re: Re: Re: Recommendations for a programming book?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg55863] Re: [mg55837] Re: [mg55778] Re: Recommendations for a programming book?
- From: János <janos.lobb at yale.edu>
- Date: Fri, 8 Apr 2005 01:36:39 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <d2tfqb$qp3$1@smc.vnet.net> <200504060711.DAA13529@smc.vnet.net> <200504070910.FAA12961@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Andrzej, Can you show, how to include the material from Michael's DVDs into the Help of Mathematica, just as Wolfram's book is shown there ? Then if that also could be achieved that when I look let's say RealDigits in the Help. then under See Section 3.1.3 I could have See Trott's P.2.4.2 or something like that, that would be great. Thanks ahead, János On Apr 7, 2005, at 5:10 AM, Andrzej Kozlowski wrote: > I think I have read almost all books on programming in > Mathematica and > find Michael Trott's book by far the most interesting. Maeder's > book is > elegantly written but actually you do not need it to learn how to > write > good packages or how to document them: a better method is to select > one > or two standard packages provided with Mathematica and study them > carefully. To me this seems a relatively trivial issue, not worth a > whole book. Maeder's two books entitles The Mathematica Programmer I > and II, based on his articles in the Mathematica Journal are in many > ways more interesting. > Wagner's book is a good book on programming but it hardly shows you > how > to solve a serious problem. For the latter Mastering Mathematica by > Gray is better but it comes nowhere near Michael's book. The value of > Michael's book is not really that there are "things in there that are > no where else" but rather that shows how to use Mathematica to solve > problems about which it is sometimes hard to believe that they can > even > tackled with a computer program. It is completely wrong to say that is > has "a huge number of unnecessary references". The worked out > problems > and exercises touch on countless topics in Mathematics and physics and > the references are needed for the necessary background. I doubt that > there is anyone who knows more than a fraction of the material > involved; references are a must in this sort of work. > As for Wolfram's book; well I think trying to learn Matheamtica > form it > is a bit like trying to learn mathematics form an; I do not know > anyone > who has got very far with this approach. But, as a basic reference it > has no substitute. > > Andrzej Kozlowski > > > > > On 6 Apr 2005, at 09:11, David Bailey wrote: > >> I remember when I first obtained Mathematica, how impressed I was >> with >> Stephen's book. I think the examples are particularly well chosen >> - not >> too simple as to fail to illustrate what a command does, but not so >> complicated that you have to work hard to understand them. >> >> Because the book with the software is so good, it does seem hard to >> beat >> it! I have yet to read Michael Trott's book, and what you say is >> interesting. I wonder if anyone else can offer an opinion. >> >> As regards such things as checking that a function does not >> inadvertently access global variables, I think this is something >> for a >> piece of checking software to enforce - it is not so much a lack of >> knowledge, but a mistake that you are trying to eliminate. >> >> David Bailey >> dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk >> >> ------------------------------------------ "The shortest route between two points is the middleman" Ayn Rand
- References:
- Re: Recommendations for a programming book?
- From: David Bailey <dave@Remove_Thisdbailey.co.uk>
- Re: Re: Recommendations for a programming book?
- From: Andrzej Kozlowski <akoz@mimuw.edu.pl>
- Re: Recommendations for a programming book?