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Version 11 of Mathematica

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Re: Version 11 of Mathematica

#101

An open question independent of the author: What do people use Mathematica for that can't be done in R, SAS, Matlab, SPSS or Python libraries. Is it a great innovation that other tools have caught up with, or is it still getting a lot of use at the bleeding edge?

One thing people often miss talking about Mathematica is that the core math notebook features, 3d plotting, symbolic algebra tools have all been available since the early 1990s. Seriously, that's a long time, and a lot of user hours and development have gone into Mathematica. It's not perfect, it's not for everyone, I don't currently have a license, but to my mind, it's the gold standard for interactive notebook type…

> One thing people often miss talking about Mathematica is that the core math notebook features, 3d plotting, symbolic algebra tools have all been available since the early 1990s.

late 1980s to be more precise…

Re: Version 11 of Mathematica

#102
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hassle free, easy to setup, with commercial support, a great GUI, great documentation Which of those doesn't apply to R? > works across so many science domains Mathematica offers the same statistical capabilities as R? Granted, I haven't used it in years, but that would be a new thing if true.

Starting with version 9 Mathematica has built in integration with R. So you can use R in a seamless way from you Mathematica notebooks: https://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/new-in-9/built-in-integr...

Yes. There is indeed a RLink package https://reference.wolfram.com/language/RLink/guide/RLink.htm... which can pass R commands to R from Mathematica and transfer the data.

Re: Version 11 of Mathematica

#103

An open question independent of the author: What do people use Mathematica for that can't be done in R, SAS, Matlab, SPSS or Python libraries. Is it a great innovation that other tools have caught up with, or is it still getting a lot of use at the bleeding edge?

I've used Mathematica, R, and Python extensively, and even Matlab (cringe). I reach for Mathematica when I need to do something symbolic (algebra, derivatives, etc.), and also for the built in graphics. It is easy to interactively build up plots that give good insight into my data. It also is easy to problematically create quite complex plots. It is enough better at that that I don't just stick with R or python. I ca…

> I reach for Mathematica when I need to do something symbolic (algebra, derivatives, etc.)

So, when do you use Matlab? Can you give me some real life examples that illustrated your decision?

Re: Version 11 of Mathematica

#104
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're thinking of Matlab. Mathematica isn't particularly huge in education (yet).

Matlab might be more popular in engineering, but Mathematica is pretty pervasive world wide in math and physics especially

Can you elaborate on why Matlab is more popular in Engineering and Mathematics in math and physics?

Re: Version 11 of Mathematica

#105
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We (see https://cloud.sagemath.com ) and others (e.g., https://www.continuum.io/ ) do offer commercial support for Python (etc.) and an easy to setup environment. Of course, Matlab is also commercially supported by Mathworks, and it seems that R is now commercially supported by Microsoft ( https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-platform/r-server ). [Edit: added Microsoft]

and an easy to setup environment. Hardly so[1] --especially for general/non-technical users. [1] http://doc.sagemath.org/pdf/en/installation/installation.pdf

I think he's referring to commercial support for a Python environment at cloud.sagemath.com, for which there is zero setup. Just go to the link provided. SageMath is also available there with zero setup. You don't need the Sage installation manual to use it there.

Re: Version 11 of Mathematica

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Matlab might be more popular in engineering, but Mathematica is pretty pervasive world wide in math and physics especially

Can you elaborate on why Matlab is more popular in Engineering and Mathematics in math and physics?

Not sure, could have to do with early marketing in the 80s - we all know academia likes to stay on a path regardless of new developments. Could be as simple as "Mathematica" has math in its name and was developed by a physicist...and "Matlab" has lab in its name. Fickle folks, idk.
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