Re: Does anyone else think Wolfram Research are unfair to Unixusers?

In article <8pfdk.12314$89.4685@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Nasser Abbasi <nma@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"Mike Hansen" <mhansen@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:cb0141d3-4951-4166-a290-bf15563a17bf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


On the other hand, if you care about things like exact linear algebra
or number theory or combinatorics, then Sage is well ahead of
Mathematica.

--Mike

Hi;

I do not know much about Sage, but in Mathematica, I bought this books, and
it has a very large package called Combinatrica
http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~skiena/combinatorica/

"This book provides examples of all 450 Combinatiorica functions in action,
along with the associated mathematical and algorithmic theory. The book
contains no formal proofs, but enough discussion to understand and
appreciate all the algorithms and theorems contained within. "

We need, even in discussion of canned programs, understanding
rather that overly simplified examples for those who cannot
understand the concepts. I do not know 450 combinatoric functions,
or even 100, but I suspect I could recognize and use at least
400 of them, as well as more.

A good cook does not put that much reliance on a cookbook.

This package is also part of Mathematica 6.0

I have a Mathematica 4.0 handbook (can I still lift it? :-) )
and one at most 1/4 the size, written for people who can
understand mathematics, would be far more useful.

http://reference.wolfram.com/mathematica/Combinatorica/tutorial/Combinatorica.html

It contains list of the functions in the package.

BTW, my biggest complaint about Mathematica is its horrible
notation. I have no problem with operators far more overloaded
than the usual, but the use of square brackets for most of the
things it is used for is outlandish.

Again, I do not know how Sage compares to this. May be you do and can make
an opinion.

Nasser








--
This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University
hrubin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558
.

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