Re: Mathematica Programming
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg108957] Re: Mathematica Programming
- From: telefunkenvf14 <rgorka at gmail.com>
- Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2010 08:01:44 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <hphbp3$llb$1@smc.vnet.net>
On Apr 7, 2:21 am, "David Park" <djmp... at comcast.net> wrote: > Very interesting question. > > I have never been able to understand the promotional material for > webMathematica. Can one run webMathematica from a standard user web site > provided by an ISP? Or does one have to have one's own server setup, and > what would that consist of? Where would the Mathematica engine that drives > webMathematica actually reside? (It would be nice to have an answer that I > could operationally understand and not in some jargon.) Is webMathematica > something accessible for ordinary Mathematica users and developers, or is it > ultimately a high priced institutional type application? Is it available to > Premier subscribers? > > If I recollect correctly, there is a possibility that in the near future WRI > will provide a way so that anyone can read a Mathematica notebook on line in > a web browser. Would this include the use of active controls and be able to > utilize private packages? Would this be an alternative to webMathematica? > > Lots of questions, but being able to communicate efficiently with people who > don't presently have Mathematica is still the missing link. > > David Park > djmp... at comcast.nethttp://home.comcast.net/~djmpark/ > > From: Nicholas Chung [mailto:nchun... at u.washington.edu] > > I have Mathematica 7 but I was wondering how it compares to > WebMathematica and WorkBench? Can I create full applications and > interactive websites with Mathematica? How much control do I have over > the user interface design? I've actually been reading up on how to install WebMMA and showed the setup instructions to the IT guys at my university. Their reaction wasn't all that comforting. (Most of them don't deal with anything Java) Anyways, I was going to call in and suggest a couple of possible improvements: 1. WRI could provide a VMWare server appliance to significantly ease the setup. Two reasons WRI might NOT want to do this. Copy protection may not work as it should---I don't know, just a hunch---and the cost involved with configuring, releasing, and maintaining virtual appliances may not actually be worth it. Definitely adding cost, not necessarily adding revenue. 2. WRI might instead consider a WebMathematica hosted solution. This would be tricky too, as such a service could directly compete with Mathematica itself---in other words: How in the would you price it (without alienating users with aggressive price discrimination)? Most of the people that would choose a hosted solution are probably like me. That is, dabblers in something new, only trying out the WebMMA due to the availability via Premier Service. Another potential problem with the hosted idea would be cost of computing time (i.e., my bad code burns up server time). 3. A hybrid of (1) and (2): WRI could configure a VM appliance, bundled with WebMMA, that could be immediately uploaded and deployed to a cloud hosting service such as Amazon. (Q: Has anyone used Amazon's cloud computing services? I looked at the rates recently and didn't think they looked too bad... just wondering about real world experiences for pay-go computing.)