Why don't developers in the Bay Area use Mathematica?

#1

Post by pasteurquadrant » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 10:24 PM UTC

Is it because it's not marketed to developers? Is it because of price? Is there a need for a general purpose data analysis platform?

Re: Why don't developers in the Bay Area use Mathematica?

#2

Post by cmelbye » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 10:59 PM UTC

The fact that it's proprietary, closed-source software probably doesn't help.

Re: Why don't developers in the Bay Area use Mathematica?

#3

Post by rpietro » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 11:05 PM UTC

language is proprietary, nothing preventing it from going South overnight

Re: Why don't developers in the Bay Area use Mathematica?

#4

Post by e_modad » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 11:54 PM UTC

My big problem is the price. It's just outrageous for software that I just want to hack on something every once in a while.

Re: Why don't developers in the Bay Area use Mathematica?

#5

Post by ryanobjc » Sat, Dec 13, 2014, 12:17 AM UTC

e_modad wrote: post #4

My big problem is the price. It's just outrageous for software that I just want to hack on something every once in a while.

individual version is like $250 or so.

Re: Why don't developers in the Bay Area use Mathematica?

#6

Post by yzzxy » Sat, Dec 13, 2014, 12:21 AM UTC

Just wondering, do you see this more outside of the Bay/Valley or in other countries?

Re: Why don't developers in the Bay Area use Mathematica?

#7

Post by wolfgke » Sat, Dec 13, 2014, 12:22 AM UTC

ryanobjc wrote: post #5

e_modad wrote: post #4

My big problem is the price. It's just outrageous for software that I just want to hack on something every once in a while.

individual version is like $250 or so.

Only for nonprofessionals ($295). For commercial use it's much more expensive: http://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/pricing/industry-individu...

Re: Why don't developers in the Bay Area use Mathematica?

#8

Post by ryanobjc » Sat, Dec 13, 2014, 12:39 AM UTC

wolfgke wrote: post #7

ryanobjc wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

individual version is like $250 or so.

Only for nonprofessionals ($295). For commercial use it's much more expensive: http://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/pricing/industry-individu...

Yeah.

Now if I was establishing a hedge fund, maybe it might be worth it?

Re: Why don't developers in the Bay Area use Mathematica?

#9

Post by wolfgke » Sat, Dec 13, 2014, 12:49 AM UTC

ryanobjc wrote: post #8

wolfgke wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only for nonprofessionals ($295). For commercial use it's much more expensive: http://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/pricing/industry-individu...

Yeah. Now if I was establishing a hedge fund, maybe it might be worth it?

But then don't expect employees to learn/work with Mathematica in their free time or between jobs.

Re: Why don't developers in the Bay Area use Mathematica?

#10

Post by chatmasta » Sat, Dec 13, 2014, 2:41 AM UTC

Pretty clearly the issue is that it's proprietary. It's astounding this is still the case. Has Wolfram ever given his reasoning behind this? Presumably he wants to capture enterprise customers, but there are other ways to do that (optimized compilers, specialized featuresets, virtual machines, IDE licensing, support, etc.) In this day and age, there is no reason for a programming language to be closed source.