RE: Comparison between Mathematica and other symbolic systems
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg92518] RE: [mg92378] Comparison between Mathematica and other symbolic systems
- From: "William E. Bohrer" <bohrer1 at hughes.net>
- Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2008 04:37:15 -0400 (EDT)
Hi everybody, As part of a presentation to students, I will have to support the claim that "Mathematica is better than other systems when it comes to symbolic computations". Some experts in other systems will be giving a 15 min presentation to convince the audience of the contrary, and then it will be my turn. At this point I am quite clueless on how to make my point across. First of all, I am not at all familiar with any other system's symbolic toolboxes, so I don't know what are the weaknesses. Also, I am not sure what kind of demo could really make an impression on graduate students and colleagues. Has any of you any experience on this? Ideas? Suggestions? Thank you! -- Prof. Paolo Bientinesi, Ph.D. RWTH Aachen University, AICES pauldj at aices.rwth-aachen.de pauldj at alumni.cs.utexas.edu Hello Paolo! Suggestion one: if the other experts presenting are willing to cooperate to some extent, to prevent the presentation from becoming an apples vs. oranges presentation; you may wish to ask them what sort of problems they are addressing. With that information, if it is possible to get it, you may wish to ask this group what examples they have on hand or have seen that would be good to show grad students and colleagues. Suggestion two: you could consider using the demonstration of Mathematica used by Heikki Ruskeepaa in Chapter 1 of the Mathematica Navigator because it is a visually impressive, fast paced look at the range and capability of Mathematica by looking at Merseene numbers. The usefulness of this suggestion depends a lot on whether the audience already knows anything about Mathematica or not. Suggestion three: you may well be obligated to give the entire presentation, however, if time permits, you might be able to ask a graduate student to either make the presentation or assist with the presentation. If possible this should be an articulate, beautiful woman. If any of the grad students I know heard a beautiful woman say something good about Mathematica, they would embrace Mathematica as the best of all possible symbolic computational tools. Suggestion four: share this challenge with your Mathematica representative. With a challenge like this coming up, they might be willing to offer some ideas, assistance, presentation examples, etc. Comment: actually, I am so happy with Mathematica that I know either nothing or next to nothing about any competing systems. Good Luck! Bill Bohrer bohrer1 at hughes.net