Re: Work on Basic Mathematica Stephen!
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- Subject: [mg130791] Re: Work on Basic Mathematica Stephen!
- From: David Bailey <dave at removedbailey.co.uk>
- Date: Wed, 15 May 2013 02:54:32 -0400 (EDT)
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On 13/05/2013 08:48, Murray Eisenberg wrote:> Well put: "ephemera in ephemera out." > > As a possible, simple-minded explanation of what WRI is up to: surely they're faced at any given time with a given customer base. To gain new customers, they need to add new areas of applicability, whether through adding them directly to Mathematica or by creating new Mathematica-based products. > ................................ >> Mathematics and Mathematica are intrinsically difficult enough as it is. >> That makes it all the more important that WRI present users with a stable, >> robust, easy to use basic interface. WRI had not done the best job they >> could at this and not what one would expect for a relatively expensive >> product. >> >> >> David Park I think there is a serious problem faced by many software developers who have a stable product evolved over many versions. They simply have to go on innovating, even if the changes don't make a lot of sense - because otherwise, why should users pay for expensive upgrades? Many people prefer earlier versions of Microsoft Office, and a great many people avoid Windows 8. I think there is a warning here for WRI. I almost think there is a case for a clean-up version of Mathematica that sorts out a whole variety of irritations (everyone probably has a different list) such as: 1) No multi-level UNDO! 2) Glitches associated with the startup of Mathematica. 3) A review of the Dynamic system so as to make it really robust. 4) Not enough control of error messages (e.g. the cut off after 4 messages of a particular type). etc. Perhaps WRI should create that list of cleanup tasks by consulting its user base! After the cleanup version, it might make sense to pause for a while, and just do bug fixes. David Bailey http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk
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- Work on Basic Mathematica Stephen!
- From: "djmpark" <djmpark@comcast.net>
- Work on Basic Mathematica Stephen!