9 ms·

I know it's proprietary as hell, but, honestly, you can't beat Mathematica for general symbolic math use. It has an incredible array of libraries available for

I know it's proprietary as hell, but, honestly, you can't beat Mathematica for general symbolic math use. It has an incredible array of libraries available for just about every need, and the language is very pleasant to work with.

rtpg 10y ago
Mathematica is super expensive for personal use, unfortunately. Good if you're really into it, but hard as an impulse buy (plus they discriminate based on country and double the price in some places).
- pmiller2 10y ago
  It's showing me a price of $310 for the personal edition right now. I think that's worth it if you're going to get a couple hour's usage a month out of it.
  - rtpg 10y ago
    In Japan it's $600. I wonder if there's any region checking...
- shakna 10y ago
  Grab a Pi. Might be slow, but if you set it up to just remote shell into it, then you do get access to Mathematica for a fairly small outlie.
  - pmiller2 10y ago
    Great way to experiment with the language, though, even if it is a bit slow. Can't argue with a $0 price, and the Pi is fun to play with by itself. :)
  - UncleSlacky 10y ago
    You could just emulate a Pi on an x86 PC and run it that way (though it'll probably be slower than a native Pi), see for example: http://www.linux-mitterteich.de/fileadmin/datafile/papers/2013/qemu_raspiemu_lug_18_sep_2013.pdf http://www.linux-mitterteich.de/fileadmin/datafile/papers/20...
- eggy 10y ago
  I use the Home Edition which I bought for just under $300 a while back. It is a great mathematics playground, although, concerns over being able to peer review the engine or calcs in the software are valid, not for what I use it for. It is like Emacs for me. I leave it open all day, and just play around in it. The multiple programming paradigms are fun too for coding practice.
williamstein 10y ago
I've devoted my life to beating Mathematica for general symbolic math use. Don't tell me I can't. :-)
- Y_Y 10y ago
  I took a "Computer Algebra" class in undergrad which was taught entirely in Mathematica. It was a lot of work to convert everything (and the instructor would jokingly refer to me as "sage guy") but I got an awful lot out of using Sage instead. What keeps me from using sage nowadays is that I have a great jupyter workflow, and last time I used Sage it was just a worse version of that with better symbolic support.
  - williamstein 10y ago
    Sage 7.4 now includes Jupyter as our main personal notebook UI.
    - leephillips 10y ago
      Just went to sagemath.org to check it out. The link to the changelog is broken. My editor was concerned about the two names, Sage and SageMath. As far as I could tell they're just synonyms, but do you have any guidance about which is to be used when?
      - williamstein 10y ago
        Thanks. In the meantime, see https://github.com/sagemath/sage/commits/master https://github.com/sagemath/sage/commits/master or https://git.sagemath.org/sage.git/ https://git.sagemath.org/sage.git/
      - williamstein 10y ago
        The official name is SageMath, but you can call it Sage for short.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
exDM69 10y ago
Mathematica is one of the two pieces of proprietary software I use, but I no longer have a free (academic) license so I haven't used it in a while. But it's very buggy on Linux, and did not work out of the box last time I tried it. It somehow violates the X11 protocols (some window managers have Mathematica-specific workarounds) and in my case the windows were all over and mouse clicks didn't hit the correct positions. I can't justify buying $300 worth of software I need twice a year and I can't trust to work correctly. I've used SymPy and Maxima but they are not as easy to use. I managed with SymPy to get some results but they were not as well simplifies as Mathematica results. Maxima was nearly impossible to use for me as I have no background in symbolic computation and the documentation expects you to understand the algorithms (e.g. different methods for simplification). The biggest plus of Mathematica is the docs. They have tons and tons of examples and every function is thoroughly documented. And it is easy enough for me to understand without a lot of math background.
- wolfgke 10y ago
  > Mathematica is one of the two pieces of proprietary software I use, One is the other one?
  - exDM69 10y ago
    SketchUp for woodworking plans. I've yet to try a few of the open source CAD solutions, I might migrate if I find a good one. For more artistic modelling I use Blender. I also play games on Windows/Steam but I could live without that. Openttd and Nethack would do :)
- pmiller2 10y ago
  I haven't tried every WM, but I have tried a few and never had a problem. But, yeah, given your issues with your chosen WM and lack of use, I can hardly blame you.
  - exDM69 10y ago
    I use a niche WM, so I'm kinda asking for trouble. I'm pretty sure I would not get any support from them. I noticed that i3 WM has Mathematica specific workarounds. Might be an issue with non-reparenting WMs in general.

rtpg 10y ago

Mathematica is super expensive for personal use, unfortunately. Good if you're really into it, but hard as an impulse buy (plus they discriminate based on country and double the price in some places).

pmiller2 10y ago
It's showing me a price of $310 for the personal edition right now. I think that's worth it if you're going to get a couple hour's usage a month out of it.
- rtpg 10y ago
  In Japan it's $600. I wonder if there's any region checking...
shakna 10y ago
Grab a Pi. Might be slow, but if you set it up to just remote shell into it, then you do get access to Mathematica for a fairly small outlie.
- pmiller2 10y ago
  Great way to experiment with the language, though, even if it is a bit slow. Can't argue with a $0 price, and the Pi is fun to play with by itself. :)
- UncleSlacky 10y ago
  You could just emulate a Pi on an x86 PC and run it that way (though it'll probably be slower than a native Pi), see for example: http://www.linux-mitterteich.de/fileadmin/datafile/papers/2013/qemu_raspiemu_lug_18_sep_2013.pdf http://www.linux-mitterteich.de/fileadmin/datafile/papers/20...
eggy 10y ago
I use the Home Edition which I bought for just under $300 a while back. It is a great mathematics playground, although, concerns over being able to peer review the engine or calcs in the software are valid, not for what I use it for. It is like Emacs for me. I leave it open all day, and just play around in it. The multiple programming paradigms are fun too for coding practice.

williamstein 10y ago

I've devoted my life to beating Mathematica for general symbolic math use. Don't tell me I can't. :-)

Y_Y 10y ago
I took a "Computer Algebra" class in undergrad which was taught entirely in Mathematica. It was a lot of work to convert everything (and the instructor would jokingly refer to me as "sage guy") but I got an awful lot out of using Sage instead. What keeps me from using sage nowadays is that I have a great jupyter workflow, and last time I used Sage it was just a worse version of that with better symbolic support.
- williamstein 10y ago
  Sage 7.4 now includes Jupyter as our main personal notebook UI.
  - leephillips 10y ago
    Just went to sagemath.org to check it out. The link to the changelog is broken. My editor was concerned about the two names, Sage and SageMath. As far as I could tell they're just synonyms, but do you have any guidance about which is to be used when?
    - williamstein 10y ago
      Thanks. In the meantime, see https://github.com/sagemath/sage/commits/master https://github.com/sagemath/sage/commits/master or https://git.sagemath.org/sage.git/ https://git.sagemath.org/sage.git/
    - williamstein 10y ago
      The official name is SageMath, but you can call it Sage for short.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]

exDM69 10y ago

Mathematica is one of the two pieces of proprietary software I use, but I no longer have a free (academic) license so I haven't used it in a while. But it's very buggy on Linux, and did not work out of the box last time I tried it. It somehow violates the X11 protocols (some window managers have Mathematica-specific workarounds) and in my case the windows were all over and mouse clicks didn't hit the correct positions. I can't justify buying $300 worth of software I need twice a year and I can't trust to work correctly. I've used SymPy and Maxima but they are not as easy to use. I managed with SymPy to get some results but they were not as well simplifies as Mathematica results. Maxima was nearly impossible to use for me as I have no background in symbolic computation and the documentation expects you to understand the algorithms (e.g. different methods for simplification). The biggest plus of Mathematica is the docs. They have tons and tons of examples and every function is thoroughly documented. And it is easy enough for me to understand without a lot of math background.

wolfgke 10y ago
> Mathematica is one of the two pieces of proprietary software I use, One is the other one?
- exDM69 10y ago
  SketchUp for woodworking plans. I've yet to try a few of the open source CAD solutions, I might migrate if I find a good one. For more artistic modelling I use Blender. I also play games on Windows/Steam but I could live without that. Openttd and Nethack would do :)
pmiller2 10y ago
I haven't tried every WM, but I have tried a few and never had a problem. But, yeah, given your issues with your chosen WM and lack of use, I can hardly blame you.
- exDM69 10y ago
  I use a niche WM, so I'm kinda asking for trouble. I'm pretty sure I would not get any support from them. I noticed that i3 WM has Mathematica specific workarounds. Might be an issue with non-reparenting WMs in general.