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Maybe it's a problem of language. Perhaps 'user-interface' is the wrong phrase for what Mathematica enables. It seems closer to 'interactive exploration'. Math
by DaniFong 18y ago
Maybe it's a problem of language. Perhaps 'user-interface' is the wrong phrase for what Mathematica enables. It seems closer to 'interactive exploration'.
Mathematica is really intended for general purpose exploration, and in that task, as well as many others, a 'hacked together' GUI made out of a few widgets is orders of magnitude more accessible than the raw code. It's not beautiful, necessarily, and it's not necessarily well-designed. It's not likely to replace the detailed, careful work of master designers.
But it does succeed at placing extraordinary power at one's fingertips. When the elements simply work together, and the data can be simply, easily, and quickly plugged into to a display function and a manipulate function in a line or two, it opens really exciting new possibilities.
- ahoyhere 18y agoSure, I agree with you. Makeshift interfaces surely have their place and I was duly impressed by the demos. They are fucking cool, and cliché, I'm not typically interested in higher math unless it's showing me insights related to me earning money. But. This is all well and good, unless you title linkbait "Why Spend More than Five Minutes on a GUI?". It wasn't "Build a Nifty Mathematical Experimentation GUI in 5 Minutes in Mathematica," or even "Build a Nifty GUI in 5 Minutes in Mathematica," or "Explore Math! 5 Minute GUI," any of which would have been accurate and still interesting. Instead, it appeals directly to the base (and incorrect) belief that so many developers have, that UI is an unimportant afterthought that can be dispensed with, if they only find the right combination of readymade widgets. In 5 minutes! Ugh.