MathGroup Archive 2012

[Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index]

Search the Archive

Re: Memory Blowup Issues

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg126876] Re: Memory Blowup Issues
  • From: Szabolcs Horvát <szhorvat at gmail.com>
  • Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2012 03:40:01 -0400 (EDT)
  • Delivered-to: l-mathgroup@mail-archive0.wolfram.com
  • References: <jqsa3j$dej$1@smc.vnet.net>

On 2012.06.08. 9:37, Bill Rowe wrote:
> On 6/7/12 at 5:22 AM, ralph.dratman at gmail.com (Ralph Dratman) wrote:
>
>> Taming the experience of using the software, especially for
>> new users, would be of enormous benefit to the company, since the
>> software might then reach a far wider audience.
>
> Maybe this would benefit Wolfram. It isn't obvious. If there
> were no additional costs associated with reaching a wider
> audience (i.e., selling more licenses) there is a clear benefit.
> But there are costs such as programming resources to provide the
> "taming" you have in mind. An even if this entailed no
> additional programming resources, more licenses sold will mean
> more people wanting support and increased support costs. I don't
> know what tradeoff Wolfram would want in this regard. But I am
> sure reaching a wider audience doesn't come without additional cost.
>
>> It seems possible to me that Mathematica, in a slightly different
>> form and possibly under a different name, could become for today's
>> computers what Basic was for the Apple II and the IBM PC.
>
> This almost certainly won't happen with Mathematica. BASIC was
> designed to be a beginner's programming language. Mathematica is
> designed to be a very powerful mathematical toolset. And it
> seems clear Wolfram intends to increase the power of this
> toolset and extend it to additional areas of computation. To
> really make effective use of Mathematica you really need a solid
> understanding to mathematics and numerical computation, quite a
> bit deeper understanding than what is required for something
> like BASIC.
>
> True, if all you do with Mathematica is use it as a super
> scientific calculator, you don't need any deeper understanding
> than what would be required for BASIC. But, I would strongly
> argue this isn't making significant use of Mathematica's
> capabilities. There are far less expensive solutions for such
> calculations that are much easier to master than Mathematica. Of
> course, these lack the power Mathematica offers.
>
>

You might find this interesting:

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/qisot/im_stephen_wolfram_mathematica_nks_wolframalpha/c3xz8by

Quoting the last paragraph:

"It'll probably be related to my goal in the next year or two of making 
Mathematica definitively the world's easiest to learn language..."

-- 
Szabolcs Horvát
Visit Mathematica.SE:  http://mathematica.stackexchange.com/



  • Prev by Date: Re: Varying a constant in an ODE to Manipulate solution
  • Next by Date: how can I change the CDF which imports the data and uses it , without execution of code
  • Previous by thread: Re: Memory Blowup Issues
  • Next by thread: Re: Memory Blowup Issues