Re: v.7.0 issues
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg93910] Re: v.7.0 issues
- From: AES <siegman at stanford.edu>
- Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2008 05:09:04 -0500 (EST)
- Organization: Stanford University
- References: <gggqff$31i$1@smc.vnet.net> <200811261010.FAA19484@smc.vnet.net> <gglsmu$8ai$1@smc.vnet.net>
On Nov 25, 7:18 am, "alexxx.ma... at gmail.com" <alexxx.ma... at gmail.com>
wrote:
> I thought it could be a good idea to start a thread where to detail
> all the issues (both positive and negative!) discovered by early
> adopters of ver.7.0:
> detail your experience here!
>
> Alessandro
Alessandro:
Are you limiting this to "early adopters" only -- or can "non-adopters"
chime in also?
If the latter, then the overwhelmingly negative issues for me are not
any of minor or routine (but still damaging) bugs and glitches that will
come along with any major new version of any major software package (as
people have already been reporting for M6 in this thread), but a set of
much more basic issues:
1) M7 brings another massive set of changes in old routines or new and
increasingly complex capabilities that one presumably has to learn or
adapt to, before the dust has even settled on the massive (and massively
disruptive) changes associated with M6.
2) And yet, _still_ no adequate user documentation, at least for new or
occasional or "ordinary" users of these changes and new capabilities --
the same as was the case when M6 emerged. (And, presumably, any
third-party efforts that might have been under way to develop such
documentation for M6 have now been thrown off track, or at least further
delayed, by the emergence of M7).
3) Beyond this, as a working engineer, long-time university faculty
member, and educator, I'm fully in accord with the response that says
> Like all [recent] versions of Mathematica, version 7.0 is
> ridiculously expensive for the average user...
"Ridiculously and impossibly expensive" might be more like it.
4) And so I expect I'll be going along with another recent response
that says:
> Probably, I am not upgrading anymore for this and the
> reasons below, despite that I have been a loyal customer
> since the earliest v2.1 and upgraded most of the
> subsequent releeases.
In my case, it's been "loyal customer __and active proponent__ of
Mathematica since the earliest v1.0." Just dug out of my files acouple
of memos dating back a decade or more ago, from me to deans of schools
and to IT people in my university, urging major university support for
widespread adoption of Mathematica across my university. Where
opportunity presents, I'm voicing exactly the opposite views today.
5) I might be a bit more restrained in expressing these highly negative
views, here and elsewhere, had I not had an accidental encounter a few
weeks ago with a senior colleague in my department whose multi-year
academic involvement with Mathematica up through v5 has included doing
very extensive analyses and numerical calculations of complex quantum
phenomena; writing several memos and reports for his graduate students
and colleagues on the techniques he's developed for this work; and also
developing, teaching and writing class materials for an undergraduate
course titled "EE141M Engineering Electromagnetics with Mathematica".
(He also happens to be a member of both NAE and NAS.)
I discovered that, totally without any contact with my own views and
rants, he had purchased multiple copies of M6 when it came out, and
installed them on his home and lab computers. After wrestling with M6
for some period of time, he then removed and trashed all his copies of
M6; dug out his old installation CDs for M5 and reinstalled it on all
his machines; and doesn't plan to worry further about MX where X>5.
I've also had private email responses to some of my early posts on this
group following the emergence of M6 that have been supportive of of my
criticisms of M6.
Bottom lines:
* I absolutely don't pretend to understand Wolfram's product and
marketing and branding strategy for Mathematica, and especially who they
view as their customer base. But at this point, it doesn't include me,
or any groups I can think of; and I sure as hell wouldn't invest in
Wolfram myself, or advise anyone I know to buy Mathematica.
* And as an entirely separate issue, I don't understand Wolfram's
strategy or tactics so far as user documentation is concerned. Their
approach simply seems utterly crazy to me, and has since the arrival of
M6.
* But I also retain a great admiration for the technical capabilities
and the immense knowledge base embedded in Mathematica -- post M5
included -- which means the two preceding comments are sources of
sadness, not gladness. I'm just not going to ride the Wolfram train any
further myself.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: Re: v.7.0 issues
- From: Murray Eisenberg <murray@math.umass.edu>
- Re: Re: v.7.0 issues
- From: Andrzej Kozlowski <akoz@mimuw.edu.pl>
- Re: Re: v.7.0 issues