Mathematica??

[Guv]

For years I have been using MathCad, which is an excellent application for computational purposes.

I was recently given Mathematica and just installed it. I know that Mathematica is a better product, but it seems user hostile compared to MathCad.

When I first started using MathCad, I just hacked it without the manual. I do not seem to be able to do that with Mathematica.

Does anybody have any opinion on these two products?

[Dillinger4]

Ah Mathematica by Stephen Wolfram. Published his first scientific paper at age 15; got his PhD in theoretical physics from Caltech at 20; became at 22 the youngest ever recipient of a MacArthur Prize Fellowship.

Anyway, since i have never used MathCad i really have no opinion on its power or ease of use but i think that Mathematica is great. My friend lent it to me a while ago and and after my hd crashed i never had the chance to get it back from him. From what i remember Mathematica enables you to program in a C like procedural fashion with the loops and assignments and such or you can treat it as a rule based language like prolog, or as a String based language like Snobol. Id like to pick up a copy of my own soon.

[Guv]

Dilenger4: MathCad is a very powerful application. It will do summations, integration, matrix operations, 2d & 3D plots, all sorts of formula evaluation, find roots, et cetera, and I think it will solve differential equations. It has programming capabilities, but I do not think the language is C-Like. I never use the programming capabilities, but find the other capabilities quite handy for work too complex for my HP calculator. For programming, I use Visual Basic. I particularly like the MathCad capabilities for formatting and printing all types of mathematical notation.

From what I have read and heard from others, Mathematica is a superior product with a few more features, but similar in its intent and capabilities. I know it can do incredible arithmetic which MathCad cannot do. For example: Mathematica can compute a factorial and produce an exact integer result with hundreds (maybe thousands) of digits, while MathCad will only produce a floating point result with 15 digit precision. Mathematica has better capabilities for symbolic manipulations.

My problem with Mathematica is that it seems to be harder to hack without a manual. It is a very expensive application (over $1000 American, I believe), but there used to be a student edition available for about $100. The student edition is supposed to have all the capabilities of the regular edition. I have had the 3.0 version of the student edition for many years and recently started to use it. I do not have a manual.

I was hoping to find somebody familiar with both products. I am wondering if my problems with Mathematica are merely due to the user interface being different from the MathCad interface I have been using for about ten years.

[Dreamlax]

What in particular do you find difficult about the use of Mathematica? I agree though, I mean, on first use, entering "1+1" and pressing enter simply leaves you with "1+1" and a carriage return.

After about two months I managed to use Mathematica quite well (compared to a complete newbie). I hardly use it unless I need to work something out that the standard Windows calculator has trouble with.

[bugzpodder]

the only good tip i've got for you is to use the help menu (F1) and the tutorial in the program, which is available for mathematica 4.0 and 5.0 not sure about your edition. there are some syntax you've gotta get used to, like [] and such, and the Shift-Enter thing. i've never done programs in mathematica before though.

and yes, it is very confusing to begin with, but after a while it gets easier like everything else

[DiGiTaIErRoR]

Get vTi and emulate a TI-92.

[Dillinger4]

Posted by Guv

It is a very expensive application (over $1000 American, I believe), but there used to be a student edition available for about $100. The student edition is supposed to have all the capabilities of the regular edition.

Amazon has Mathematica 5.0 for about $1499.99

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/se...940847-2071065

I checked with an online software site that works with my college and many others that they have the same version for about $139.99. Can these both be the same?

[Guv]

Dillenger4: The $139.99 version is probabably the student edition, which is likely to have a higher version number than the 3.0 student version with which I am familiar.

To the best of my knowledge, the Student editions have all the features of the regular edition, but are sold very cheap to those who can prove they are students. I do not think they require much in the way of proof.

I think the student edition has some protection which prevents it from being installed on a second system. My guess is that when you register to get a password, they ask you (or query your system) and encrypt the password so that it can be recognized as invalid on a second system.