RE: Re: Book recommendation for
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg9456] RE: [mg9408] Re: Book recommendation for
- From: Ersek_Ted%PAX1A at mr.nawcad.navy.mil
- Date: Thu, 6 Nov 1997 02:40:03 -0500
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Van Graves wrote:
------------------------------------- | In my view,the Bahder book
is one on the few references about |Mathematica Version 2.2 that is
worth buying. |
I think there are a few others as well. Which ones? It depends what
you are interested in. |
|However, it is not a book
|for beginners in the sense that one needs to have a general idea about
|how Mathematica works in order to follow the book without being lost.
|The book is weak in discussing how to create and format graphics, but
|it provides very good illustrative examples about the use of
|Mathematica in other areas of mathematics that an Engineer may find
in |his/her way.
|
|Also, keep in mind that many things have been changed in |Mathematica
3.0 (and above) that, obviously, are not covered in |Bahder's book.
|
Yes, but with few exceptions code that works using version 2.2 will work
using version 3.0.1.
What you will miss are the new features added in Version 3.0. |
| In general, it is very difficult to point out a single reference
|covering Mathematica in a comprehensive way and one may need to spend
a |lot of time to understand how something works. |
For users who are moderately proficient with Mathematica, and want to
learn how to push the envelope I recommend the following. Power
Programing With Mathematica The Kernal, by David B. Wagner
|
|Even though one may find
|a lot of references about Mathematica, few of them are really useful,
|and the end result is that the program is still poorly documented, |
Yes, it bugs me that there is virtually no documentation for the menu
command in Version 3.0.
But the Mathematica Book (3rd edition) is 1400 pages, and documents the
Kernal features very well.
Ted Ersek
ersek_ted%pax1a at mr.nawcad.navy.mil