Re: Opportunities and Player Pro
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg104473] Re: Opportunities and Player Pro
- From: telefunkenvf14 <rgorka at gmail.com>
- Date: Sun, 1 Nov 2009 04:02:02 -0500 (EST)
- References: <hcbi0f$jn9$1@smc.vnet.net> <200910300719.CAA27741@smc.vnet.net>
On Oct 31, 1:52 am, Daniel Lichtblau <d... at wolfram.com> wrote: > telefunkenvf14 wrote: > > On Oct 29, 2:59 am, "E. Martin-Serrano" > > <eMartinSerr... at telefonica.net> wrote: > >> I wish to join the opinion already expressed here on that WRI should provide > >> the means to make available to people, in general, any products developed > >> with Mathematica, allowing to manipulate all or most of the dynamic > >> graphics and other stuff in them. The lack of this free tool which would > >> make possible wide distribution of these materials severely restricts the > >> opportunities to use Mathematica for many purposes. > > >> It is true that Mathematica Player Pro is already available, and that it is > >> the professional platform for running interactive Mathematica applications > >> and documents and for interacting with reports and documents. It is also > >> true that, Player Pro is an application delivery system and that it can > >> be used to deliver tools, and so on. But, in the end, all this is > >> restricted to a closed and, to certain extent, comparatively tiny community > >> of already Player Pro users. > > >> But think about, say, a book on some scientific and technical matter, meant > >> to be distributed in many countries, written in Spanish, English, Russian, > >> French, German, Arabic, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, and others. Let us > >> suppose that it is an outstanding book targeted to a wide spectrum of > >> persons and institutions: including academics, professionals, and students; > >> plus people in general too. And, let suppose that the authors are > >> considering including in the book, as an addendum, the sort of dynamic > >> graphics and some other computational material that Mathematica could > >> provide. > > >> Taking apart the fact that some potential purchasers of the book would > >> actually be current Mathematica users; does anyone really think that it > >> makes any sense including Mathematica as an important tool for the project > >> and tied it to a preexistent and closed community of already Player Pro > >> users? > > >> I would really like to be in a situation of defending the Mathematica way > >> since I believe it would be nearly the best one, both for readers (including > >> students) and lecturers; but I cannot. It seems that for projects like this > >> there is a long way to go yet. > > >> E. Martin-Serrano > >> [...] > > Jon McLoone responded to this. I'll just briefly reiterate: it is quite > likely that waht you want can be achieved via the free Mathematica Player. > > > I just wish WRI would provide me with the PlayerPro licenses promised > > when I signed up for Premier service... > > > (Their response: Oh, well that's not included with *Student* premier > > service. My reply: You don't make any such distiction prior to > > purchasing premier service.) > > > Student buyers beware, I guess. > > > -RG > > Player Pro is (at this time) targeted for business applications. A > student savvy enough to develop and market a business app surely should > realize that Player Pro will not be provided at the low cost of a > student license. > > I realize there is debate as to what Player Pro should be, to what > markets/audience it should be aimed, whether it should be free or sold > at much lower cost than is now the case, what should be its availability > to non-professional-premier-service customers, etc. I merely comment on > the situation as it exists, not as it might be in a different scenario. > > Daniel Lichtblau > Wolfram Research (1) I complement your passive aggressiveness. (And I'm NOT being sarcastic.) (2) WRI simply needs to make a CLEAR distinction as to what *student premier* service includes and doesn't include. Additional examples abound. For example, if I go to purchase an add-on package, I'm lead to believe that, as a 'premier' subscriber, I'm entitled to an additional 10% off. Nope. Same with the courses offered by WRI. That's confusing--and part of maximizing profit should be minimizing customer confusion. (3) The reason player pro was appealing? I hoped to introduce my advising prof to Mathematica, enabling him to have an active notebook, play with parameter values, and/or data. I figured it would help communication between us. (4) I also was interested in player pro because I envision academic situations where embedding (encrypted) data into a notebook and giving it to people could be massively helpful. (for example, allowing participants to play with adding or removing variables from a regression, before and after a seminar) (5) Consulting might be a future possibility, so why not encourage students to learn about available tools? -RG