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

Re: Re: Book or Manual for 6?

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg78317] Re: [mg78276] Re: Book or Manual for 6?
• From: Murray Eisenberg <murray at math.umass.edu>
• Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 04:25:11 -0400 (EDT)
• Organization: Mathematics & Statistics, Univ. of Mass./Amherst
• References: <f5qitl$5fs$1@smc.vnet.net> <200706270932.FAA01420@smc.vnet.net>
• Reply-to: murray at math.umass.edu

Although I agree fundamentally with everything that David says about how 
to learn Mathematica (and other things as well), there are still three 
issues, the third of which some other poster mentioned:

(1) Still, there are occasions when I want no electronic impediment 
whatsoever and just want to look at a book.  Clearly some thing are best 
learned with the live system, but there are others for which a clear 
exposition, with good examples and in a coherent underlying conceptual 
structure, suffices.

(2) As a university teacher for over 40 years, the longer I teach the 
more I realize how very different learning styles can be.  So a 
multiplicity of learning modes and materials is warranted.

(2) Perhaps it's not so much a printed book per se that I, and some 
others, miss, but rather the quasi-linear (and spirally structured) path 
through Mathematica provided by "The Mathematica Book".

Just because the system itself may be a web does not preclude an author 
from creating a more-or-less linear path through (part of) it.

David Park wrote:
> 
> As to the lack of a hard copy book: I don't think that a static book is the 
> way to learn Mathematica. ... Hard copy books are truly inadequate for learning the 
> new Mathematica. That is probably why there was little effort to produce 
> such a book....

-- 
Murray Eisenberg                     murray at math.umass.edu
Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
Lederle Graduate Research Tower      phone 413 549-1020 (H)
University of Massachusetts                413 545-2859 (W)
710 North Pleasant Street            fax   413 545-1801
Amherst, MA 01003-9305

• References:
  • Re: Book or Manual for 6?
    • From: "David Park" <djmpark@comcast.net>