Wolfram Research Releases Mathematica 7

mblase writes "Wolfram Research has released the seventh version of Mathematica, and it does a lot more than symbolic algebra. New features range from things as simple as cut-and-paste integration with Microsoft Word's Equation Editor to instant 3D models of mathematical objects to the most expensive clone of Photoshop ever. Full suites of genome, chemical, weather, astronomical, financial, and geodesic data (or support for same) is designed to make Mathematica as invaluable for scientific research as it is for mathematics."

Comments

Slashvertisement

[Bananenrepublik]

"[It] is designed to make Mathematica as invaluable for scientific research as it is for mathematics." Cut down the advertising please. Or at least advertize some free software. It's been a while since I needes a computer algebra system. How are the free alternatives coming along? Any recommendations?

Re:Slashvertisement

[navyjeff]

does it matter that it's open source or not? Open source is not inherently better than closed source.

Being able to show exactly which steps a CAS went through to arrive at a solution can be important. With Mathematica, you have to trust that the methods they use, which you can't see, are legitimate and don't introduce any unforeseen error.
I don't mean to pooh-pooh Mathematica; it's an excellent program. But being able to show 100% of your work has intrinsic value.

Re:Slashvertisement

[Xamusk]

Sage http://sagemath.org/ is coming pretty good. Version 3.2 will come out in just a few days.

And you can use Mathematica, Matlab, Maple, Magma, Maxima, etc from inside Sage if you have those programs available.

Re:Slashvertisement

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

With Mathematica, you have to trust that the methods they use, which you can't see, are legitimate and don't introduce any unforeseen error.

Absolutely.

I work on pretty much a daily basis with computer algebra systems. In my work, I am using CAS systems to perform integrals on what would be otherwise an unmanageable amount of equations, in order to generate some nice neat, but still quite large matrices. Despite its obvious technical inferiority, I'm using Maxima to do this. A lot of this has to do with running Mathematica and the like on Linux, which is a painful process, but the peer reviewable nature of an open source system is another major factor.

I've said this before, but essentially Mathematica is the modern mathematical Oracle at Delphi; arcane, totally inscrutable, and regarded by almost everyone as infallible. You cannot use its results professional for anything other than integral tables or the like. At least, not in mathematics. Maybe physicists use it, but I'd have my doubts. (Engineers? ... well they're a heathen lot anyway...)

True, Mathematica is useful. But it's closed source nature, combined with its almost universal presence in scientific research is very troubling.

I think I'll pass.

[muuh-gnu]

A slashvertisment suggestion for tomorrow:

"The Pirate Bay also Releases Mathematica 7"

Re:I think I'll pass.

[muuh-gnu]

>That would be nice,

It is.

>but doesn't solve the problem

It will.

>of Mathemitca's notorious copy protection.

The Pirate Bay verison of mathematica usually includes protection from copy protection.

>From what I hear, even legitimate owners often have trouble getting past it.

Legitimate owners of ANY copy protection system are generally having orders of magnitude more problems with those systems than users who just get clean copies at their Pirate Bay.

Re:Refund please

[Ethanol-fueled]

Much handwaving, little meat, astonishing arrogance.

Sounds more like his masturbation habits.

Re:Fuck Mathematica

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Maple 4 was released in April 1986. You should really consider upgrading.

Maxima

[Brain-Fu]

Maxima is released under the GPL.

Re:Maxima

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Maxima also sucks. Here's a session from just this afternoon.

[omf@midgar 14:45:36 ~]$ maxima
Maxima 5.13.0 http://maxima.sourceforge.net/
Using Lisp GNU Common Lisp (GCL) GCL 2.6.8 (aka GCL)
Distributed under the GNU Public License. See the file COPYING.
Dedicated to the memory of William Schelter.
This is a development version of Maxima. The function bug_report()
provides bug reporting information.
(%i1) Q=matrix.... .....

(%i11) Q.T.transpose(Q);
(%o11) matrix([cos(t) (cos(t) T11 - sin(t) T12)
  - sin(t) (cos(t) T21 - sin(t) T22), cos(t) (cos(t) T12 + sin(t) T11)
  - sin(t) (cos(t) T22 + sin(t) T21), cos(t) T13 - sin(t) T23],
[cos(t) (cos(t) T21 - sin(t) T22) + sin(t) (cos(t) T11 - sin(t) T12),
cos(t) (cos(t) T22 + sin(t) T21) + sin(t) (cos(t) T12 + sin(t) T11),
cos(t) T23 + sin(t) T13], [cos(t) T31 - sin(t) T32, cos(t) T32 + sin(t) T31,
T33])
(%i12) trigsimp(%);
Universal error handler called recursively (:ERROR NIL
CONDITIONS::CLCS-UNIVERSAL-ERROR-HANDLER
""
  "Couldn't protect")
Universal error handler called recursively (:ERROR NIL
CONDITIONS::CLCS-UNIVERSAL-ERROR-HANDLER
"" "Couldn't protect")
Maxima encountered a Lisp error:

  Error in CONDITIONS::CLCS-UNIVERSAL-ERROR-HANDLER [or a callee]: Caught fatal error [memory may be damaged]

Automatically continuing.
To reenable the Lisp debugger set *debugger-hook* to nil.
(%i13) Q.trigsimp(T.transpose(Q));
(%o13) matrix([cos(t) (cos(t) T11 - sin(t) T12)
  - sin(t) (cos(t) T21 - sin(t) T22), cos(t) (cos(t) T12 + sin(t) T11)
  - sin(t) (cos(t) T22 + sin(t) T21), cos(t) T13 - sin(t) T23],
[cos(t) (cos(t) T21 - sin(t) T22) + sin(t) (cos(t) T11 - sin(t) T12),
cos(t) (cos(t) T22 + sin(t) T21) + sin(t) (cos(t) T12 + sin(t) T11),
cos(t) T23 + sin(t) T13], [cos(t) T31 - sin(t) T32, cos(t) T32 + sin(t) T31,
T33])
(%i14) trigsimp(Q.trigsimp(T.transpose(Q)));
Segmentation fault
[omf@midgar 14:48:25 ~]$

Computer algebra systems are not the best to begin with, but Maxima has a very, very long way to go before it can compete with Mathematica. Most of my analytical work on a daily basis is done using Maxima and I can safely say that the program could be a lot better than it currently is.

Re:From my point of view

[addaon]

The student version is cheap (free at most decent universities). The Wolfram folk are great if you need a deviation on the license for student stuff (running on a multi-processor machine before multiple kernel executions were included in the default license); just ask. As a long-time student, Mathematica is the greatest tool out there, and is the only software out there where I'm consistently excited about no versions, and /always/ find ways to incorporate at least a few of the new features in my existing notebooks. With Mathematica 6, Manipulate[] was an absolute game changer. With Mathematica 7, I'm betting ParallelTable[] and the new charting features will be just as big a deal, for me.

Re:Fuck Mathematica

[rcallan]

Octave is a free version of Matlab, practically all your Matlab code will work in Octave.

Re:Fuck Mathematica

[rahuja]

You don't have to throw that code away or port it to an entirely different language (though Python rocks, and I wish my day-to-day job let me use more of it) Try GNU Octave - that's what I used to back in college because my department didn't have licensed copies of MATLAB installed/available, so-called student versions were insanely impossible and expensive to get hold of (Indian students can't afford $100), and I didn't want to pick a pirated one like the rest of the class.

Possible the first open-spurce software I practically used (except playing with Linux).

Code was very cross-compatible between Octave and MATLAB, except say constants like "e" and "exp" (and of course the MATLAB-specific toolkits). The toughest part at that time was explaining to the professor (who had no idea what "open-source" was) that I did *not* use MATLAB, but it would run on MATLAB fine if he wanted to check that my assignments work fine.

Re:But does it

[ch-chuck]

Mathematica 7 is so powerful, Linux runs on it

Re:I love mathematica

[Skevin]

Uhh...

> High-Impact Adaptive Visualization
It's got graphics now.

> Automated Computational Aesthetics
You don't have to graph things out by hand.

> Fully Automated Graph Layout
You don't have to graph things out by hand.

> Real-Time 3D Graphics
If you change your equation, the graph changes too.

> Automated Table Layout
Shows you the points they graphed.

> Dynamic Interactivity
It's got a GUI.

> Integrated Geometric Computing
Runs on a computer following Moore's law, hence "geometric" advancement.

> Combinatorial Optimization
Solve the Travelling Salesman problem by something other than brute force.

> Equational Theorem Proving
Okay, that could be cool... if the previous versions didn't have it already.

> New Generation Numerical Integration
It can use numbers now?

> Computable Data
> Financial Data
> Astronomical Data
> Country Data
> Particle Data
> Graph Data
> Mathematical Data
Since this is a list of "New Features", previous versions of Mathematica could not be used for these purposes. All you could do was show a fellow math geek how that humanities major had a really nice set of 80085.

> Unification of Graphics, Text & Controls
In previous versions, you were lucky if what you wrote or clicked resembled anything like the output! Now, when when you type in "y=x", you actually get a straight diagonal line, instead of one of the spirally partial differential functions we like to put on the cover of the manual!

> Language for Data Integration
There's now its own scripting language. Whoa, Mathematica never had *that* before!

> Dynamic Graphical Input
Use symbols you never thought possible! Like that squiggly "integrate" symbol, or that lambda derive-like thingy. Even use that upside-down "U" for set theory!

> Instant Multimedia Programming
Uses both Video and Audio! Include a Youtube video in your equations of Stephen himself telling you how wrong your equation is!

> Real-Time Code Annotation
Add "comments" whenever and wherever you want! No other language has the ability to "comment" on your code!

> Instant High-Level Debugging
Be able to step through your code and set break points! Stephen is the first person to think of it! No other programming IDE has ever done anything so revolutionary!

> Integrated Graphics Editing & Drawing
Did your equations predict that the Mars Lander was going to crash and burn? Use the Graph Editor to change the equation output, and show your fellow engineers a perfect atmospheric re-entry! Then re-sell those high-risk equations to an over-leveraged engineer who does care! You'll be long gone by the time they realize what you've done! This feature brought to you by the Lenders Association of US Banks.

> HID Support
You may now use a mouse and keyboard in this version, instead of simply shouting at the screen, hoping it'll do something!

> Streamlined Presentation Framework
Use an overhead projector instead of a video monitor to show your results!

> New Documentation Framework Dynamic Interactivity
We'd like to call it "Google"...

Solomon Chang