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Re: best book to quickly master all Mathematica functions, and

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg93244] Re: best book to quickly master all Mathematica functions, and
  • From: dr DanW <dmaxwarren at gmail.com>
  • Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2008 05:06:27 -0500 (EST)
  • References: <geee5b$a7i$1@smc.vnet.net>

On Oct 31, 3:03 am, stpatryck <stpatr... at gmail.com> wrote:
> Which book out there is the quickest way to master Mathematica in a
> month or so?

The Mathematica Book, all 275 pounds of it.  At the very least, read
the "A Tour of Mathematica" and "A Practical Introduction to
Mathematica" chapters.  The book that has given me the best insight
into the philosophical structure of the Mathematica language is Roman
Maeder, Programming in Mathematica, 3rd ed.  The main strength of the
Mathematica language that has given it such staying power over 20
years is its amazing consistency and fidelity to its basic principles,
many of which were originally formulated by Dr. Maeder.  A good
understanding of the contents of this book will give you the ability
to synthesize on your own with Mathematica.

Of course, the best way to learn any language is immersive training.
Pick a project and do the whole thing in Mathematica, even if you feel
that you could make faster progress in a more familiar tool.  A few
hours stumbling over concepts and searching function documentation for
a practical application will gel concepts very quickly.

Daniel


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