Re: Workbench - any use to me?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg79512] Re: Workbench - any use to me?
- From: Chris Chiasson <chris.chiasson at gmail.com>
- Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2007 05:33:04 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <f8chpv$5h9$1@smc.vnet.net>
On Jul 27, 5:35 am, "Tim Birks" <pys... at hotmail.com> wrote: > Having read many recent posts about getting hold of the new version of > Workbench, I'm wondering whether I should get it too. (I have a Premier > Service subscription, and the download email is currently sitting in my > inbox.) The details on the Wolfram website somehow don't communicate what > the value of the software would be for me. I am not a "software developer", > but I use Mathematica a lot for solving numerical modelling problems and > visualising data in my academic research (physics/photonics). Some of the > code I write is long and complicated. My knowledge of Mathematica is not > deep; I use the bits I know essentially as a programming language. I don't > write code for other people to use. > > Is Workbench likely to make it easier for me to work with Mathematica? Has > anyone in a similar situation to me found it valuable, or not? Is it worth > my while downloading, installing and learning to use, even if it's free? > > T. I used it for more than six months, though I presently don't. It is useful for figuring out the correct way to lay out a package. It is useful for keeping source code within an 80 column width (because it can be configured to show a vertical line at 80 columns). It is useful for debugging when the source code is available as .m files, because it can recognize the functions on the stack and match them to the source code (showing you what part of the code is executing and what are the present values of the variables). Since it is based on Eclipse (Java-based), you can use Subclipse for interfacing with subversion repositories. Since it is based on Eclipse, it takes up a lot of RAM and is and slow.