wgilbert@watmath.uwaterloo.ca (William Gilbert) (04/22/91)
From the Kitchener-Waterloo Record on April 13, 1991 from an interview with the Maple software group: ... And Next, the new educational computer developed by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, has asked Maple to produce a Next-compatible version of its software. The worldwide marketplace for symbolic math software is currently a two-horse race between Maple and Mathematica, a product of the larger Wolfram Research Inc., of Champagne, Ill. ... "I see us actually passing the (market) leader, Mathematica, in two and a half to three years" [Neumann said] _______________________________________________________________________ Will Gilbert, Pure Math Dept, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada wgilbert@math.UWaterloo.ca NeXT mail:wgilbert@fatou.UWaterloo.ca
hardy@golem.ps.uci.edu (Meinhard E. Mayer (Hardy)) (04/22/91)
In article <1991Apr21.191124.14582@watmath.waterloo.edu> wgilbert@watmath.uwaterloo.ca (William Gilbert) writes: >> From the Kitchener-Waterloo Record on April 13, 1991 from an interview >> with the Maple software group: >> >> ... >> And Next, the new educational computer developed by Apple co-founder Steve >> Jobs, has asked Maple to produce a Next-compatible version of its >> software. >> The worldwide marketplace for symbolic math software is currently a >> two-horse race between Maple and Mathematica, a product of the larger >> Wolfram Research Inc., of Champagne, Ill. >> ... >> "I see us actually passing the (market) leader, Mathematica, in two and a >> half to three years" [Neumann said] This is good news! I have tried Maple V and Mathematica 1.2 (under X, off a Dec 5200, as well as the Mathematica 1.2 on the NeXT) and find the first one fater, easier to use, with a good help system (the Mathematica 1.2 I got with my NeXt station does not have help at all). It will be an incentive for Wolfram to finally ship a complete and useable Mathematica; as far as I can tell from browsing thtough the Mathematica 2.0 book, it still lacks the differential-geometry packages Maple has. The main feature the NeXT version of Mathematica which makes it attractive is the "Notebook" facility, which Maple still lacks. Having a choice will make both systems better! Greetings, Hardy -------****------- Meinhard E. Mayer (Hardy); Department of Physics, University of California Irvine CA 92717; (714) 856 5543; hardy@golem.ps.uci.edu or MMAYER@UCI.BITNET
benseb@nic.cerf.net (Booker Bense) (04/23/91)
In article <HARDY.91Apr21222959@golem.ps.uci.edu> hardy@golem.ps.uci.edu (Meinhard E. Mayer (Hardy)) writes: >In article <1991Apr21.191124.14582@watmath.waterloo.edu> wgilbert@watmath.uwaterloo.ca (William Gilbert) writes: > [quote deleted ] > >This is good news! I have tried Maple V and Mathematica 1.2 (under >X, off a Dec 5200, as well as the Mathematica 1.2 on the NeXT) and find >the first one fater, easier to use, with a good help system (the >Mathematica 1.2 I got with my NeXt station does not have help at all). - This is a problem with compatablity between NextStep 2.0 and Mathematica 1.2. A working Mathematica interface has a useful help command ( it will do function name completetion and provides internal documentation on the function. ) This is supposed to be fixed in MMA 2.0. When will it arrive ? >It will be an incentive for Wolfram to finally ship a complete and >useable Mathematica; as far as I can tell from browsing thtough the >Mathematica 2.0 book, it still lacks the differential-geometry >packages Maple has. - There are lots of user developed packages for MMA. I'm sure there are the basics for Differential Geometry somewhere. This is also true of Maple. I don't have access to Maple %-(! , so I can't say whether it's easier to develop libraries for MMA or Maple. However, if you get seriously into MMA , Rom Meader's book is essential. Many of the complaints about MMA ( slowness , no type specification...) can be significantly improved by adopting a different programming style. The obvious Fortran induced way of doing things (i.e. Do loops ) is generally the slowest and worst way to do things. It is quite easy to double or triple the speed of your code if you take advantage of the MMA's internals. Developing specialized packages for MMA is fairly easy once you get past the first one. Developing efficient packages is harder, although from what I could see of the recent demo of MMA 2.0 they have increased the support within MMA for doing this. I think the general direction that MMA is taking is moving away from the ``super calculator'' approach into a ``integrated language '' approach. In 2.0 it will be much easier to incoporate external programs into MMA. >The main feature the NeXT version of Mathematica which makes it >attractive is the "Notebook" facility, which Maple still lacks. >Having a choice will make both systems better! > -IMHO, the notebook is the most important feature of MMA. Much of it's faults can be forgiven for this. I would not use MMA if it were not for the notebook. - Booker C. Bense prefered: benseb@grumpy.sdsc.edu "I think it's GOOD that everyone NeXT Mail: benseb@next.sdsc.edu becomes food " - Hobbes
bennett@mp.cs.niu.edu (Scott Bennett) (04/23/91)
In article <HARDY.91Apr21222959@golem.ps.uci.edu> hardy@golem.ps.uci.edu (Meinhard E. Mayer (Hardy)) writes: > [quotation deleted --SJB] > >This is good news! I have tried Maple V and Mathematica 1.2 (under >X, off a Dec 5200, as well as the Mathematica 1.2 on the NeXT) and find >the first one fater, easier to use, with a good help system (the >Mathematica 1.2 I got with my NeXt station does not have help at all). Actually, 1.2 *does* have a fair amount of help stuff and it works just fine under NS 1.0a. NS 2.0 broke it and nobody expects it to be fixed until Mathematica 2.0 comes out. It strikes *me* as a minor miracle that the help stuff broke, yet the rest of it, oddly enough, still seems to work okay. > [text deleted --SJB] > -------****------- >Meinhard E. Mayer (Hardy); Department of Physics, University of California >Irvine CA 92717; (714) 856 5543; hardy@golem.ps.uci.edu or MMAYER@UCI.BITNET Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG Systems Programming Northern Illinois University DeKalb, Illinois 60115 ********************************************************************** * Internet: bennett@cs.niu.edu * * BITNET: A01SJB1@NIU * *--------------------------------------------------------------------* * "Spent a little time on the mountain, Spent a little time on the * * Hill, The things that went down you don't understand, But I * * think in time you will." Oakland, 19 Feb. 1991, first time * * since 25 Sept. 1970!!! Yippee!!!! Wondering what's NeXT... :-) * **********************************************************************