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Re: The Mathematica Book, Electronic Media and MathWorld

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg78655] Re: The Mathematica Book, Electronic Media and MathWorld
• From: AES <siegman at stanford.edu>
• Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 03:24:49 -0400 (EDT)
• Organization: Stanford University
• References: <f5qitl$5fs$1@smc.vnet.net> <200706270932.FAA01420@smc.vnet.net> <f5vrpf$kar$1@smc.vnet.net> <f6d6oi$oft$1@smc.vnet.net>

In article <f6d6oi$oft$1 at smc.vnet.net>,
 "David Park" <djmpark at comcast.net> wrote:

> > We almost all love books. They still have some advantage over electronic 
> media because of their portability. And right now there is probably more 
> technical material in books than in electronic media. (This however will 
> quickly change.) They make great collectors items. As technical documents 
> that is about the end of their advantages. Mathematica notebooks and pdf 
> documents are far superior - but unfortunately not MathWorld.

While not disagreeing with much of what David says in this message, I 
think he seriously fails to separate out or clarify important issues of 
content, presentation, and purpose in his discussion of on line vs on 
paper -- especially for introductions to new or radically changed topics.

1)  Say I have a prospective trip coming up that will be my first time 
ever to Australia, with a good chance of adding some personal vacation 
and exploration time on the end -- maybe in Australia, maybe on en 
route, 

My approach will certainly be to go to a bookstore; scan the collection 
of a dozen or so Australian and South Pacific paperback travel books; 
pick out one that seems at first glance to be reasonably well done; 
invest $20 in it (small change for getting initial guidance on an 
ultimate investment of $1000s); and skim through it as opportunity 
presents, of a late evening, on a cramped plane flight, or as noontime 
reading at an outdoor table with a sandwich.

Once I've got the big picture -- where in Australia's immensity might I 
most want to go?  Or would a stopover in Fiji on the trans-Pac flight be 
more appealing? -- *then* I can go to the web, start looking up routes 
and fares on airline sites, digging into specific resorts' web sites and 
tourist office sites, and so on.  

But for that initial overview, nothing beats a Frommers or a Lonely 
Planet or the like, *on paper*.

2)  Similarly, I'm sitting here with many years' sustained investment in 
Mathematica and a lot of tasks to do using it.  The Mathematica 5 online 
help has been of great assistance while writing a lot of notebooks -- I 
think it's great.  The disk image for Mathematica 6 is already on my
hard drive; no question I'll have to convert -- but when? and with what focus?  

Installing and converting to a major new rewrite of a major software 
package is always a stressful and  disruptive event -- things break, or 
at a minimum change significantly. 

And, trying to *do* a significant task while simultaneously trying to 
*learn* a new tool, is not a sensible or efficient approach.  Especially 
with a change as substantial as the Mathematica 5->6 transition appears to be, 
one needs to have a guide book to the new region, the new capabilities, 
the major changes -- which is absolutely not the same as a detailed 
online reference guide.

So, I have a four-hour plane flight coming up -- a bad place to do any 
serious work, and a bad place to try to use a computer under any 
circumstances:  Ever try to navigate through a complex hyperlinked 
document in a cramped coach seat using touch pad instead of mouse?  Ever 
try to do this while juggling the "snack", or a coffee?  Ever had the 
seatback in front of you come suddenly tipping back, trapping your 
laptop screen between seat back and tray table, and threatening to snap 
the whole computer in two?

So, a well-written, well-illustrated, *on paper* document, maybe 50 to 
100 magazine-size pages, summarizing "What's New and Changed from 5 to 
6" would be ideal for this flight and for the waiting times in dreary 
terminals on the way.  I could peruse it, think about it, annotate it, 
turn down relevant page corners, consider how it might change my work 
flow, my programming habits, my notebook structuring -- and plan what 
I'll do when I get back to the keyboard.  

3)  So, two final queries:

*  IF the equivalent of this document is, as alleged, readily available 
on line, somewhere at the Wolfram website, why can't I get it *on paper* 
-- or at least on line as a *single* document, or a single ready to 
print PDF file.  (Trying to download a heavily hyperlinked Help file or 
web site is not something I've ever found a way to do.)

[In fact, given the price of Mathematica 6, why didn't I get a paper copy of 
such a document *with* the purchase? (as used to be the case with any 
high quality software purchase).]

*  I won't actually even need my laptop on the airline trip mentioned 
above.  Ever been required to take a manual, or a book, out of your 
carry case at the airport security barrier and run it separately through 
the X-ray machine?

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Re: The Mathematica Book, Electronic Media and MathWorld
    • From: Murray Eisenberg <murray@math.umass.edu>