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Woxi: Wolfram Mathematica Reimplementation in Rust

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Re: Woxi: Wolfram Mathematica Reimplementation in Rust

#21

Post by adius »

dist-epoch wrote: post #10
adius wrote: post #2

Hi, I'm the main developer. We're steadily getting closer to the next release which will support most features of Mathematica 1.0 plus some of the most popular newer functions (> 900 overall!). AMA!

Why would I use this and not Wolfram Script? Better license? Allowed for commercial operations?

Exactly! And:

- Faster startup time because of no license check

- Can run multiple instances of Woxi at the same time

- Embeddable via WASM

- Configurable via compile time flags (which features should be included)

- …

Re: Woxi: Wolfram Mathematica Reimplementation in Rust

#22

Post by adius »

downboots wrote: post #13

Great! Math tools for everyone. what's stopping some Mathematica employee from taking the source code and having an agent port it. Or even reconstruction from the manual. Who owns an algorithm? Will everything get copied eventually?

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Development_Corp._v._Bor...., a software clone does not infringe software copyright. So yeah, I'd guess sooner or later everything is going be cloned …

Re: Woxi: Wolfram Mathematica Reimplementation in Rust

#23

Post by MengerSponge »

downboots wrote: post #13

Great! Math tools for everyone. what's stopping some Mathematica employee from taking the source code and having an agent port it. Or even reconstruction from the manual. Who owns an algorithm? Will everything get copied eventually?

> what's stopping some employee from something like Mathematica from taking the source code and having an agent port it to open source

Laws against theft. Also the same reason employees don't release the code on pastebin or something.

> Who owns an algorithm?

The org or person who was granted the software patent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patent

> Will everything get copied eventually?

If we're lucky. More likely everything bitrots as technical capabilities are lost. Slowly at first, then quickly.

Re: Woxi: Wolfram Mathematica Reimplementation in Rust

#25

Post by zozbot234 »

aeonik wrote: post #16
amelius wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the Mathematica language is the least interesting aspect of the Mathematica system. Closely followed by the interactive notebooks.

I disagree, the language itself is one of the more elegant parts of the system, and enables a lot of the rest of the elegance. From a purely programming language theory, it's pretty unique. I once tried to find a language that had all the same properties, and I failed. The Factor language is probably the closest. But they are still pretty different.

The relevant programming paradigm is string/term rewriting, which is featured in other programming languages such as Pure. It seems to have few direct applications outside of symbolic computing itself, compilers and related fields such as PL theory. (Formal calculi and languages are often specified in PL theory as rewrite rules, even though the practical implementation may ultimately differ.)

Re: Woxi: Wolfram Mathematica Reimplementation in Rust

#26

Post by s3p »

the__alchemist wrote: post #20
adius wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but you've got to start somewhere! And with the amount of progress I was able to make in just a few weeks, I'm very optimistic that the polish will come sooner rather than later.

Based on the list of contributors to your project, I am not sure this starting location is optimally suited to the task of building a foundation for polished, reliable, expandable software.

The sneering on HN really has no end. This is a good project! I for one am very excited to see an interpreter born out of rust.

Re: Woxi: Wolfram Mathematica Reimplementation in Rust

#27

Post by adius »

the__alchemist wrote: post #20
adius wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but you've got to start somewhere! And with the amount of progress I was able to make in just a few weeks, I'm very optimistic that the polish will come sooner rather than later.

Based on the list of contributors to your project, I am not sure this starting location is optimally suited to the task of building a foundation for polished, reliable, expandable software.

It's having ~ 5000 tests already. Used correctly, AI agents can help you improve the quality of the code!

Re: Woxi: Wolfram Mathematica Reimplementation in Rust

#28

Post by s3p »

amelius wrote: post #12
the__alchemist wrote: post #11

I love Rust for mathematical and scientific tasks (I am building the structural bio crate infrastructure), and I love Mathematica and have a personal sub. I should be the audience, but... What makes Mathematica great, IMO, is the polish and overall experience created by consistent work with applications in mind over decades. So, I look at this project with skepticism regarding its utility.

Yeah, the Mathematica language is the least interesting aspect of the Mathematica system. Closely followed by the interactive notebooks.

First I believe there is no such thing as the Mathematica language, it's Wolframscript which is useful in a bunch of different applications. And second, if you don't have access to a $1000 / yr wolfram subscription, this would be the next best thing.

Re: Woxi: Wolfram Mathematica Reimplementation in Rust

#29

Post by egl2020 »

adius wrote: post #2

Hi, I'm the main developer. We're steadily getting closer to the next release which will support most features of Mathematica 1.0 plus some of the most popular newer functions (> 900 overall!). AMA!

There's a mystique around Mathematica's math engine. Is this groundless, or will you eventually run into problems getting correct, identical answers -- especially for answers that Mathematic derives symbolically? The capabilities and results of the computer algebra systems that I've used varied widely.
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