Re: What is the point of having Initializations in DynamicModule and Manipulate?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg123125] Re: What is the point of having Initializations in DynamicModule and Manipulate?
- From: Helen Read <readhpr at gmail.com>
- Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2011 06:55:17 -0500 (EST)
- Delivered-to: l-mathgroup@mail-archive0.wolfram.com
On 11/23/2011 7:08 AM, Andrzej Kozlowski wrote: > On 22 Nov 2011, at 11:32, David Park wrote: > >> But isn't it all very complicated and unintuitive? This basically arises >> because WRI wanted a set-piece Manipulate statement that would do just about >> everything for standalone dynamic displays. I just about never use the >> Manipulate statement. It takes more than a Manipulate statement to present a >> significant idea. One has the feeling that the Initialization option was >> added as an afterthought to make Manipulate work on some additional cases. >> Then this was carried over to DynamicModule. > > > Let me just say that I entirely disagree. I only use Manipulate and > it allows me to illustrate all kinds of advanced mathematics, including > genuinely "bleeding edge" research (look at the Wolfram Demosntrations > site and you will see some of it). I think it involves a lot of > "significant ideas" and yet I have never come across any situation where > I would want to use Dynamic (and DynamicModule). Furthermore, we have > started teaching Mathematica here both in the context of general > computer algebra and also for specific applications (including quite > advanced applications in mathematical finance). We tell the students > about Dynamic and show them a fee examples but then we only use > Manipulate. If they want to know about Dynamic they are told to learn > more by themselves. We have really top class students here, both in math > and computer science but so far I have not yet met anyone who would find > Manipulate insufficient - and they have created some quite spectacular > projects with it. And at the other end of the spectrum, my first year calculus students use Manipulate in meaningful ways. Having to build everything from the ground up with DynamicModule would be a nightmare for them. -- Helen Read University of Vermont