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Re: More /.{I->-1} craziness. Schools are conservative. So are

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg106638] Re: More /.{I->-1} craziness. Schools are conservative. So are
• From: AES <siegman at stanford.edu>
• Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:15:29 -0500 (EST)
• Organization: Stanford University
• References: <200912300915.EAA17299@smc.vnet.net> <hhhmn8$o9t$1@smc.vnet.net> <hhpl28$9lf$1@smc.vnet.net> <hip8gf$t4d$1@smc.vnet.net> <8304354.1263643340634.JavaMail.root@n11> <hiuur1$919$1@smc.vnet.net> <hj12vo$bbu$1@smc.vnet.net>

In article <hj12vo$bbu$1 at smc.vnet.net>,
 Richard Fateman <fateman at cs.berkeley.edu> wrote:

> But telling professors that Mathematica version 7.0 should be taught 
> instead of (say) quantum mechanics, won't work.  And to tell them that 
> it should be taught as an EXTRA course won't work.  And to tell them 
> that it will be more useful than some other programming language in 
> which most of their colleagues' work is written, won't work.  And to 
> tell them that they should write their papers (at some additional 
> effort) in this new way, and then present them to journals that will 
> just flatten them out into static page images, probably won't work.

Don't know how long Professor Fateman has been in a major ".edu" 
institution, but in my case it's 50+ years.  Seen a lot of things come 
and go.

And I'd say that every word of the preceding paragraph is absolutely 
correct, beyond further discussion.

> So you might start by trying to reform the publication system. 
> Convincing a journal to publish papers that can only be fully viewed by 
> readers who have a computer running Mathematica [which version?] is
> a tough sell.

Also spent a fair amount of volunteer time myself at upper levels of 
major professional societies and dealing with scientific publication 
matters over the years; and this paragraph is equally valid.

And there are a lot of other equally compelling reasons why Mathematica 
won't be the standard scientific publishing system of the future.