Re: Memory Blowup Issues
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg126885] Re: Memory Blowup Issues
- From: Ralph Dratman <ralph.dratman at gmail.com>
- Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2012 15:27:05 -0400 (EDT)
- Delivered-to: l-mathgroup@mail-archive0.wolfram.com
- References: <jqsa3j$dej$1@smc.vnet.net>
Mathematica's language could certainly be easier to learn than it is now. I don't know whether it will actually become the world's easiest computer language -- but that is certainly a worthy goal. There are two problems which form part of the learning difficulty, yet have nothing to do with the language structure itself: 1) The difficulty of finding out how to accomplish some task. This is a documentation and search problem. I have less trouble with that issue now, but it was very hard at the beginning. The documentation search is frustratingly slow -- surely an unnecessary situation. 2) The difficulty of debugging, as a result of the frequency of crashes. This simply makes trying things much slower. Fortunately, an enormously helpful change is given by the following: messageHandler = (If[Last[#], Interrupt[] ] &); (* Create a message handler. *) Internal`AddHandler["Message", messageHandler]; (* Install the handler. *) The above makes Mathematica stop on any error, promptly. Debugging time is now a fraction of what it was for me only a few weeks ago. Unfortunately there are still situations in which I have to quit the kernel or force-quit the application entirely. This becomes necessary when there has been no message issued during evaluation, and, for unknown reasons, the Interrupt menu item appears as disabled. I do not know what makes that happen. There should always be a way out. Ralph On Thu, Jun 14, 2012 at 10:11 AM, Szabolcs Horv=E1t <szhorvat at gmail.com> wrote: > 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 Horv=E1t > Visit Mathematica.SE: http://mathematica.stackexchange.com/