Re: Mathematica 7.0.1.0 and some General Comments
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg97294] Re: Mathematica 7.0.1.0 and some General Comments
- From: "M.Roellig" <markus.roellig at googlemail.com>
- Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 05:35:15 -0500 (EST)
- References: <goqphr$lt2$1@smc.vnet.net> <got8d9$gkh$1@smc.vnet.net>
> And yet, there have never been more ways for Mathematica to communicate > its results with other software. It supports huge numbers of > import/export formats, and programming interfaces such as J/Link. > Even though Mathematica supports a huge number of Import/Export file formats, I keep coming across implementations of Im/Export that are unsatisfactory. This might be bad luck onmy side, but Mathematica, in its 7th major version, is still not able to properly read in HDF4 files (from the many possible HDF4 contents only one particular format, namely SDS is supported), HDF5 (no compound data import possible, and maybe even broken ?), FITS used to be limited to one header block (seems to be working now in V7), and even PDF/PS export is always a challenge. Other scientific tools like IDL, _younameit_ are able to handle these formats properly and as a consequence are in common use (at least in astronomy/astrophysics.) If WRI wants Mathematica to get its foot into the scientific door, they should take better care of what their customer need - e.g. reading/writing their data comfortably. Sorry for my rant - I couldn't help it. Despite my excitement for Mathematica I am always frustrated the most when I waste my time on these unneccesary bugs. Markus Roellig