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Re: How to write a "proper" math document

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg120195] Re: How to write a "proper" math document
  • From: Murray Eisenberg <murray at math.umass.edu>
  • Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2011 07:00:19 -0400 (EDT)
  • References: <201171105157.314838@jfultz3winlap>
  • Reply-to: murray at math.umass.edu

Then this greater generality of interactive content possible in a .cdf 
is a well-kept secret -- and contrary to the documentation!

In fact, the Mathematica 8.0.1 Documentation Center page

   howto/CreateAComputableDocumentFormatFile

states:

   "Almost all of the functions available in Mathematica can be used to 
build applications for CDF Player, but there are a few programming 
restrictions to keep in mind.

     -- All interactive content must be generated with the Manipulate 
command and may only use mouse-driven elements, such as Slider, Locator, 
Checkbox, PopupMenu, etc."

Same thing is stated in the WRI web site version of that HowTo page.


On 7/11/11 1:51 AM, John Fultz wrote:
> No, David pointed out that in a previous iteration of Wolfram's deployable
> content initiative (which he didn't name, but was in fact .nbp, processed
> through the "Publish for Player" mechanism on the web), only Manipulates were
> supported.  That was our stated policy for .nbp, although, in fact, it always
> worked with a large class of Dynamics generally.
>
> That is no longer true for .cdf files.  CDF supports Dynamic and DynamicModule
> as well as Manipulates (although you'll find the marketing materials still
> emphasize the use of Manipulate...and for good reason since it is so easy to
> generate interfaces using it).
>
> Sincerely,
>
> John Fultz
> jfultz at wolfram.com
> User Interface Group
> Wolfram Research, Inc.
>
>
> On Sat, 9 Jul 2011 07:35:11 -0400 (EDT), Murray Eisenberg wrote:
>> David pointed out that if you want interactive content in a .cdf, you
>> have to do so by means of Manipulate. But there are situations where
>> Manipulate is much too restrictive and you want other Dynamic content,
>> including DynamicModule.
>>
>> Also, to promote the .cdf format and CDF Player and plug-in, surely a
>> more attention-getting name than "CDF" or "Computable Document Format"
>> is desirable? Yes, "CDF" has a nice analogy to "PDF", but so what. (And
>> just wait for Adobe to catch on and sue over the use of "DF"!)
>>
>> On 7/8/11 4:54 AM, John Fultz wrote:
>>> David,
>>>
>>> I wanted to respond to one particular point you made in your recent
>>> post:
>>>
>>> On Thu, 7 Jul 2011 07:28:02 -0400 (EDT), David Park wrote:
>>>> One path is to produce a free easily obtainable Mathematica Reader on
>>>> the model of the Adobe Acrobat Reader. The reader could read the
>>>> document, operate the controls (with maybe some minor restrictions) but
>>>> not much else. The idea is that once users could publish in Mathematica
>>>> they would write more literate documents. More people would see them
>>>> and decide they really wanted to do the same (or use the generated
>>>> knowledge) and so would buy regular Mathematica themselves. I despair
>>>> that WRI will ever make this approach work. (A free Mathematica
>>>> PlayerPro would be close but they don't want to do that.) WRI puts too
>>>> many restrictions and caveats in their approaches such that it will
>>>> never convince people that it will be a general method of publication.
>>>> For example, it looks as if all dynamics must be via the Manipulate
>>>> statement and one cannot write custom dynamics. I was once hopeful, but
>>>> now have doubts that this approach will ever work.
>>>>
>>> You've made this criticism before, and the criticism was much more valid
>>> then than now.  It's not clear to me from what you wrote above whether
>>> you know or appreciate how much things have changed.  One of your
>>> previous criticisms has long been that Mathematica could not simply
>>> create and maintain a native document which would be readable and
>>> executable by Player.  I.e., because Player could "play" .nb files, and
>>> Mathematica could not create .nbp files (without submission to a
>>> website, and all that this entails).  My understanding is that this a
>>> large part of why you believed Player Pro to be the superior
>>> solution...because Player Pro can play .nb files.
>>>
>>> But, in version 8, the situation has changed significantly. Mathematica
>>> can now directly create and maintain CDF (or sometimes called "FreeCDF")
>>> files. Player can play CDF files.  CDF, as they might say, is the new
>>> NBP.  There remain, of course, some restrictions as to what can be
>>> accomplished in the Player. The broadest category of items is that CDF
>>> files created directly by Mathematica cannot store new content to disk.
>>> They can't use Export[], save files, etc. (*) But they do support much
>>> of what you've suggested before, and much more than Mathematica 7 did.
>>>
>>> That you may not be aware of this isn't your fault.  Wolfram hasn't said
>>> much about it yet because we've been in the process of making sure that
>>> we can launch the right message about CDF in a strong way.  There will
>>> be a lot more to be said about CDF soon...I expect that before long
>>> plenty will be said on the Wolfram website and elsewhere describing it
>>> in much more detail.  But the functionality is already there, in version
>>> 8, and I encourage you to play with it.
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>>
>>> John Fultz
>>> jfultz at wolfram.com
>>> User Interface Group
>>> Wolfram Research, Inc.
>>>
>>>
>>> (*) It is possible, incidentally, to create CDF files with the capacity
>>> to, while running in Player, create content using Export[], saving, etc.
>>> But that functionality can't be unlocked directly from within
>>> Mathematica, and more will be said about that later, as well.
>
>

-- 
Murray Eisenberg                     murray at math.umass.edu
Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
Lederle Graduate Research Tower      phone 413 549-1020 (H)
University of Massachusetts                413 545-2859 (W)
710 North Pleasant Street            fax   413 545-1801
Amherst, MA 01003-9305


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