Wolfram Language and Mathematica version 15 • Hacker News Board

Re: Wolfram Language and Mathematica version 15

#61

Post by jrflowers » Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 6:39 AM UTC

I like the changes they’ve made to the backend in the AI era because now if you input “weight of 1 cup of sugar” into WolframAlpha it says 202 grams and if you put in “weight of 1 cup of sucrose” it says 376 grams.

  I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it. - Harry Emerson Fosdick

Re: Wolfram Language and Mathematica version 15

#62

Post by Archit3ch » Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 6:40 AM UTC

nwatson wrote: post #41

brudgers wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wolfram is $4000/seat for a perpetual commercial license with support. [1] $4000 will only buy a middling Mac Tool tool chest…and not the tools to put in it. [1] a personal perpetual license is only $400.

Cost goes down significantly for subsequent years personal. Currently at less than $200 yearly.

Unless you need System Modeler, in which case add another $576 perpetual + $260 annual.

There is a combined license for Mathematica + System Modeler, but it's "Contact us for pricing". Mind you, that's still on the Hobbyist tier. You cannot use its output for anything commercial.

Contrast with Julia's MTK/Dyad that are free for non-commercial use.

Re: Wolfram Language and Mathematica version 15

#63

Post by adius » Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 6:42 AM UTC

IshKebab wrote: post #57

alok-g wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here are some alternatives (some internally use free Wolfram engine): Reimplementation in Rust: https://github.com/ad-si/Woxi WLJS Notebook: https://wljs.io VS Code extension: https://github.com/vanbaalon/wolfbook

> Reimplementation in Rust It's so disappointing to see CLAUDE.md in projects like these. Basically rules it out for serious use.

Author here: I absolutely do not understand this mindset. It has almost 20K unit tests by now and hundreds of full end-to-end tests of complicated scripts to ensure it works and matches the output of Wolframscript. Why does it matter that I was using Claude to help me implement it?

Re: Wolfram Language and Mathematica version 15

#64

Post by themafia » Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 6:50 AM UTC

everyone wrote: post #38

I just learned that Stephen Wolfram himself is a bit of a crank apparently. https://youtu.be/fO9iRDPXvT4?si=CbCjBtOSM5JhgYUF

It's easy to find Wolfram tedious but I've not seem him be particularly disruptive to other efforts nor did his crankery lead to his current success. He's on the same level with Eric Weinstein. Your best bet is to ignore them.

Re: Wolfram Language and Mathematica version 15

#65

Post by theplumber » Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 6:58 AM UTC

adius wrote: post #63

IshKebab wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Reimplementation in Rust It's so disappointing to see CLAUDE.md in projects like these. Basically rules it out for serious use.

Author here: I absolutely do not understand this mindset. It has almost 20K unit tests by now and hundreds of full end-to-end tests of complicated scripts to ensure it works and matches the output of Wolframscript. Why does it matter that I was using Claude to help me implement it?

Are they 20k unit tests or sloppy tests? Would 100k unit tests make it better?

Re: Wolfram Language and Mathematica version 15

#66

Post by ForceBru » Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 6:58 AM UTC

prenx4x wrote: post #24

Hissab - https://hissab.io is a Free and opensource alternative to Wolfram

According to https://github.com/rawbytess/hissab, it's not even close to being an alternative to Wolfram. Hissab is described as "A strict, unit-aware natural-language calculator" and its syntax looks nothing like Wolfram. It reminds me of Wolfram Alpha, though.

Re: Wolfram Language and Mathematica version 15

#67

Post by neofrog » Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 7:29 AM UTC

adius wrote: post #63

IshKebab wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Reimplementation in Rust It's so disappointing to see CLAUDE.md in projects like these. Basically rules it out for serious use.

Author here: I absolutely do not understand this mindset. It has almost 20K unit tests by now and hundreds of full end-to-end tests of complicated scripts to ensure it works and matches the output of Wolframscript. Why does it matter that I was using Claude to help me implement it?

It could very well be 20K slop tests

Re: Wolfram Language and Mathematica version 15

#68

Post by Schlagbohrer » Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 7:29 AM UTC

alex7o wrote: post #54

orochimaaru wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't make sense even for academia. Reproducibility is an issue and as we've seen with recent fraudulent claims in major publications - it's what is going to be used for verification of research. Many years back while in grad school I could not reproduce a result from a paper. Thankfully they had provided the data as public but not the code. I emailed the authors and got some matlab code back. My university didn…

True but also for a one of piracy exists just use a cracked copy of it and be done with it

How do you run cracked/pirated copies of software? I stopped pirating software decades ago due to malware risks.

Re: Wolfram Language and Mathematica version 15

#69

Post by woctordho » Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 7:39 AM UTC

Schlagbohrer wrote: post #68

alex7o wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True but also for a one of piracy exists just use a cracked copy of it and be done with it

How do you run cracked/pirated copies of software? I stopped pirating software decades ago due to malware risks.

Download the installer itself in the official way. Run the keygen in a virtual machine.

Re: Wolfram Language and Mathematica version 15

#70

Post by mr_mitm » Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 7:50 AM UTC

themafia wrote: post #64

everyone wrote: post #38

I just learned that Stephen Wolfram himself is a bit of a crank apparently. https://youtu.be/fO9iRDPXvT4?si=CbCjBtOSM5JhgYUF

It's easy to find Wolfram tedious but I've not seem him be particularly disruptive to other efforts nor did his crankery lead to his current success. He's on the same level with Eric Weinstein. Your best bet is to ignore them.

I'd like to push back on that comparison. At least unlike Weinstein, Wolfram produced a genuinely impressive and useful piece of software, which empowers scientists and students worldwide. While his physics work is a little questionable and not too interesting, he doesn't seem to care too much what other people think. He'd never latch on to some podcast bro to give his ideas a wider reach. All Weinstein does is drop big names left and right and whine about how Big String Theory has taken over modern physics and suppresses free thinkers.