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Ah the mythical wolfram language. I'm always interested in reading about it (and other languages that differ from my day to day), but apart from the wolfram sea

Ah the mythical wolfram language. I'm always interested in reading about it (and other languages that differ from my day to day), but apart from the wolfram search engine I rarely see it used for anything. Why is this? How does the language compare to C# or Lisp etc?

Tomte 11y ago
It is the language of Mathematica. Wolfram just renamed it, because Mathematica is only his famous and well-selling product, while Wolfram is himself. :-)
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
Kipper100 11y ago
Try the video on the front page of http://emeraldcloudlab.com/ http://emeraldcloudlab.com/
frozenport 11y ago
Mostly used to cheat in higher level physics classes.
olympus 11y ago
Really the Wolfram language itself isn't anything spectacular. It makes more sense to mathematicians than most programmers. What really sets the Wolfram language apart is its gigantic library of functions. Want to look up stock quotes? easy. Weather? easy. Plus tons of other built in functions that would make a machine learning prediction of Coppertone suncreen's stock price based on weather forecast a couple of lines. In another language you'd have to set up the API queries yourself with a library, parse the returns with another library, and do the machine learning with another library. Then you'd have to cross your fingers and hope that an API or library update doesn't break your code. Wolfram promises easy access to clean data and much less heartache maintaining it.
- batou 11y ago
  At a basic level, this is also why I still drag my TI83 around. 99% of the functions I need in one little box that is always ready for action.
  - bpicolo 11y ago
    Sort of the exact opposite of why you drag your TI83 around, no? TI83 has all the basic building blocks you need to do some math. Wolfram takes all the building blocks then adds an enormous amount of extra junk that's much less frequently tapped.
    - batou 11y ago
      Fair point!
pjmlp 11y ago
Basically it is how all modern languages would be if Lisp Machines haven't died. Seeing anyone using Mathematica looks quite similar back in the day to the way Lisp Machines, Interlisp-D and also Smalltalk were being used, by those lucky enough to have access to such systems. So in experience, it is quite close to Lisp, even if it uses another syntax.

Tomte 11y ago

It is the language of Mathematica. Wolfram just renamed it, because Mathematica is only his famous and well-selling product, while Wolfram is himself. :-)

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

Kipper100 11y ago

Try the video on the front page of http://emeraldcloudlab.com/ http://emeraldcloudlab.com/

frozenport 11y ago

Mostly used to cheat in higher level physics classes.

olympus 11y ago

Really the Wolfram language itself isn't anything spectacular. It makes more sense to mathematicians than most programmers. What really sets the Wolfram language apart is its gigantic library of functions. Want to look up stock quotes? easy. Weather? easy. Plus tons of other built in functions that would make a machine learning prediction of Coppertone suncreen's stock price based on weather forecast a couple of lines. In another language you'd have to set up the API queries yourself with a library, parse the returns with another library, and do the machine learning with another library. Then you'd have to cross your fingers and hope that an API or library update doesn't break your code. Wolfram promises easy access to clean data and much less heartache maintaining it.

batou 11y ago
At a basic level, this is also why I still drag my TI83 around. 99% of the functions I need in one little box that is always ready for action.
- bpicolo 11y ago
  Sort of the exact opposite of why you drag your TI83 around, no? TI83 has all the basic building blocks you need to do some math. Wolfram takes all the building blocks then adds an enormous amount of extra junk that's much less frequently tapped.
  - batou 11y ago
    Fair point!

pjmlp 11y ago

Basically it is how all modern languages would be if Lisp Machines haven't died. Seeing anyone using Mathematica looks quite similar back in the day to the way Lisp Machines, Interlisp-D and also Smalltalk were being used, by those lucky enough to have access to such systems. So in experience, it is quite close to Lisp, even if it uses another syntax.