Re: How to write reports and books in Mathematica
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg109676] Re: How to write reports and books in Mathematica
- From: michael partensky <partensky at gmail.com>
- Date: Tue, 11 May 2010 06:28:55 -0400 (EDT)
I agree with Alexei. This is the most disappointing part in using M. for teaching and publishing. Is there a bulletproof way for protecting the nb files from corruption? Thanks Michael On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 6:37 AM, Alexei Boulbitch <alexei.boulbitch at iee.lu>wrote: > Dear David, > I would like to comment on your following statement: > > "At the present time, the single most serious problem with writing reports > and books in Mathematica is that people who do not have Mathematica can't > easily read them." > > I believe that I faced a more serious problem that prevents a broad using > of Mathematica for creation > and keeping documentation. Namely, already several times (to be more > precise, about 5 to 6) > the notebooks I have created appeared corrupted and impossible to repair. > > This year I prepared a course of uni lectures totally using Mathematica > including notebooks > with the lecture drafts and notebooks with demonstrations. It was fun and > pleasure to use such a tool > for this purpose, the feeling that I believe I share with you. However, you > can imagine my disappointment > when I have found out that several months after their creation some of > these files I cannot be open any more, > while some others I can open, but this only leads to a computer hang up. It > happened with about 5 files > out of several tens, but still each of them required a lot of my time. > Especially strong is this disappointment, > since I am going to give this course several times in future. > > OK, I have several machines and keep these notebooks on every of them, so > things are not that dramatic > in my personal case. I have really completely lost only few of those files > (though even this is no fun at all). > > However, I think that this lack of stability is the most serious problem of > the program preventing its future > propagation and should be seriously addressed. > > Indeed, what will a person do, if he loses an important document due to > such instability of Mathematica? > Assume that this person is not a Mathematica fun (as both of us are), but > only wants to use it as a comfortable > and powerful tool. And what, if it happens just an hour before he is going > to present the document to his boss, > or to shareholders of the enterprise he works in, or to his bank? > What will I do, if the day of the lecture (that I believe is ready) I find > that I cannot open the corresponding file? > I think the answer is unique: such a person will never use Mathematica any > more (at least for creation > of documentation or of presentations). > > There is a second problem about Mathematica, which I classify as less > serious, but still very unpleasant. > Rather often it informs that the system made a heavy error and will close > without saving. We know that other > programs like for instance, Word also exhibit sometimes this nice trick. > However, my personal feeling is that > Mathematica makes it considerably more often. Of coarse one can overcome > this problem by a personal discipline > by often saving notebook one works on. Therefore, I classify this problem > as a secondary one though still important. > > I place these notes in a strong hope that these problems may be fixed by > Wolfram in future Mathematica versions. > > Best regards, Alexei > > > > David Park wrote: > > Per, > > This can be approached at different levels. > > First, I'm not familiar with the capabilities and pricing of the various > versions of Mathematica but, if you can manage it and plan to do a lot of > technical work, get up to date with the latest version and keep up to date. > There is a world of difference between Version 7 and Version 5. The > dynamics > and improved graphics extend the ability to communicate by an order of > magnitude - or more. > > At the present time, the single most serious problem with writing reports > and books in Mathematica is that people who do not have Mathematica can't > easily read them. There is PlayerPro but that cost about $200 and few > people > will pay that just to read your paper or report. The free Player is a > partial solution but it is very restricted. You have to send it through > some > process at WRI, you can't use an independent package with it, and you can't > write custom dynamics but are restricted to the single Manipulate > statement. > I'm hoping that WRI will come up with a better solution to this, something > like the free Acrobat reader. We'll have to wait and see. You can "print" a > notebook as a PDF but that loses all the dynamics. > > Other than that, Mathematica offers capabilities as a technical development > and communication medium that are far beyond present practice with static > media. I would even consider it as a new field, ripe for development. We > have a lot to learn on how to use the new capabilities Mathematica gives > us. > > > You can easily add titles, subtitles, sections, subsections and text cells > to your notebooks. Each of these is a cell style. These are defined in the > various style sheets that Mathematica uses for the notebooks - for example, > the Default style sheet. I forget on which Menu item it occurs in Version > 5, > but there is a Show Toolbar option that will add a toolbar at the top of > your notebook. It has a drop-down menu for starting various cell types. You > can also use Menu, Format, Style to see the various cell styles, and this > listing also gives the shortcut keys for those styles that have them. > > Many users use Mathematica simply as a "programmable super graphical > calculator", without any sectional structure, but my opinion is that it is > much better to write notebooks as literate documents with structure and > plenty of textual explanation. > > At a higher level you can use Workbench in conjunction with Mathematica to > write Applications that might contain a book, ancillary packages, and > documentation that ties it all together. Once you get it set up, you can do > most of your mathematical development and writing in the regular > Mathematica > environment and only go to Workbench when you want to put material into a > "finished" form. This is a very good way to organize and preserve your work > in an active usable form, and to present it to other Mathematica users. > > Roger Williams has done two YouTube videos on Mathematica as the latest > medium for technical communication. He traces over three millennia of > technical communication and illustrates all the advantages of the active, > dynamic medium that Mathematica is. (He had posted a version of this on > MathGroup earlier, but this is a new and much improved version.) > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v==-b0B5hp0hAQ > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v==Pm6yrevYcjQ > > > David Park > djmpark at comcast.net > http://home.comcast.net/~djmpark/ <http://home.comcast.net/%7Edjmpark/> > > > > > From: "Per R=F8nne" [mailto:per at RQNNE.invalid] > > > I am the not quote happy owner of Mathematica Teacher's Edition [it > doesn't work on Snow Leopard] and I do now see a future need to write > reports / books using Mathematica - though of course I would then have > to purchase a new version like Mathematica Home Edition at ==A3195. > > I do know that all of the Mathematica documentation is written in > Mathematica itself. But nowhere in this documentation do I see how to > enter ordinary text or chapter titles in a Mathematica notebook. > > I have an MSc degree and teach in the Danish 3-year Sixth Form College > for the 16-19-year-olds. After the summer vacation next year I am to > take an extra BSc degree in Physics and Astronomy and this is where I > will need the ability to write reports in Mathematica, including text, > formulas and graphics. > > So I am even considering to wait with the purchase of a new Mathematica > - after all the I've got version 5 from 2003, the present version is 7 > and version 8 might have come then. > > And - I don't even see anything particularly about the issue in Stephen > Wolfram's "The Mathematica Book 5th Edition". With 1,500 pages. Only a > few hints. > -- > Per Erik R==F8nne > http://www.RQNNE.dk > Errare humanum est, sed in errore perseverare turpe > > >