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Re: A new FrontEnd

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  • Subject: [mg128150] Re: A new FrontEnd
  • From: paul at desinc.com
  • Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2012 04:56:58 -0400 (EDT)
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On Tuesday, September 18, 2012 3:48:28 AM UTC-4, djmpark wrote:
> Paul,
>
>
>
> What you're interested in is what I'm interested in and I think it is a very
>
> reasonable thing to ask for.
>

David,
I completely agree.  I am starting to get the picture (right or wrong) that WRs core customer base appears to be a group of heavy users who are probably WR's bread and butter income.  They appear to (based on watching forum) use the subset of capabilities and functions with greater rigor providing excellent detailed feedback on parameters or options to support correcting behavior.  I think these traditional people have likely been with WR for along time.  This is likely who the current incarnation was tailored to.  Kudos to them for the successful joint effort.

Though I use Mathematica fairly regularly and have for a long time, along the way I have also had to learn many other programming environments and will continue to have this requirement.  The tools that stick around (and are preferred at my workplace) all have smooth and obvious learning curves.  A graphical button to open or close input cells is one less thing I have to convey when teaching a potential user, though it may seem small to me.  The lower the =93time to productive=94, the greater the acceptance.  If some find this illusive, the correlation can easily be researched.  Unfortunately, familiarity makes it harder to see.  The greater the familiarity...

I am concerned WR might consider growth in Mathematica that departs from current methodologies will possibly lead to alienation of it's critical customer base.  I don't think engineers account for much of WR"s income an
d our needs appear to be different.  Without changes in the product, I am not sure engineering will ever embrace Mathematica on a large scale.  For all I've accomplished with Mathematica, management sometimes comments as if it were a rogue effort since I am the only user at my site.  They allow it because the speed and quality of my work can't be approached by other people using other packages.

Any changes resulting in mainstream engineering acceptance are greatly appreciated.  I will continue to offer ideas and am ecstatic to see you doing the same David.  Maybe some of our ideas will resonate.

Cheers,
Paul



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