There have been a couple of recent posts to this group announcing new software supplements to Wolfram Research Institute's major software produce Mathematica. It's not clear to me whether these posts come from WRI itself or from related vendors; and I suppose some might consider these posts as commercial spam, although I personally think that limited one-shot announcements of significant new products that might be of major interest to readers of a group like this are an acceptable use of a newsgroup like this.
In any case, I'm going to use these posts as motivation for a strictly one-shot post myself -- you can call this a rant, or call it a warning, as you like -- concerning the present status of Mathematica for Mac users.
The primary message is that WRI about a year and a half ago came out with a major new version 6 of Mathematica with very substantially expanded capabilities (over 1000 new commands, some of them very useful and powerful) and also with many of the basic commands and interface elements from previous versions either changed or removed. In general, this seems to be an even more powerful and potentially useful product than earlier versions of Mathematica.
But at the same time, for reasons I at least am totally unable to understand, WRI has yet to provide or make available any -- repeat, *any* -- printed manuals, users guides, books, or any printed (or easily printable) form of user documentation of any kind, whether from WRI or from third parties, for this massive new version.
There is indeed massive online documentation system built into the new version (11,000 pages worth, according to WRI); but in my judgement at least, after a lot of fighting with this documentation, while it may provide marginally useful _reference_ documentation for the new version, it is totally inadequate, not to say quite badly done, as the basis for adequate _user_ documentation of the new version, at almost any level of users.
There has been a moderately heated series of recent exchanges about this issue on comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica which readers can track down if they wish. At one point in this debate, attempting to illustrate the problem, I was motivated to make a quick list of *more a dozen* user manuals and books (many of them updated editions of previous manuals) that were currently available from Adobe or from third-party authors for the most recent version of Illustrator, another major software product of interest to Mac users (my full -- and lengthy! -- message containing this list is appended below).
The comparable list of books and user manuals currently available from WRI or from third-party authors for the vastly changed (and substantially more expensive) new version of Mathematica is -- more than a year after its introduction -- a null set.
A decade ago I wrote a lengthy message to my university administration praising the version of Mathematica available at that time; urging its widespread adoption for both teaching and research across the university; and urging that the university invest in central support for its adoption and use.
I wouldn't write that message or support that proposal at this point; and I'd warn any readers of this group considering the purchase of Mathematica what they'll be up against unless WRI somehow changes its current policy.
======================================= Earlier post to comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica ======================================= Does Mathematic really need printed, more introductory level documentation (aka books, or manuals) to add to its excellent, but less readable, online documentation?
Let's take an experimental or "reality-based" approach to this question (however much that approach may be out of favor with our current administration in Washington . . .)
Adobe Illustrator is, in my opinion anyway, an excellent piece of technical software, comparable in quality and usefulness and at least somewhat comparable in technical complexity, to Mathematica.
There's probably a sizable overlap --- or at very least, a very sizable _potential_ market overlap --- between Illustrator and Mathematica users (new graphics commands that are in fact very Illustrator-like have in fact been added to 6.0}.
Both programs have something of an initial learning curve for "ordinary users"; both have excellent detailed online reference documentation.
Mathematica is, I would judge, actually substantial more complex and requires more learning for an average individual than does Illustrator. On my Mac, Illustrator 11 is 75 MB for the app itself, plus another 75 MB of supplemental stuff. I didn't try to dig inside the Mathematica package, but it's over 1 GB in my Applications folder, plus whatever additional material is stuffed away elsewhere on my HD. Illustrator manuals tend to be 300 to 500 pages; the Mathematica Book for v5 was just under 1500.
So, to get some idea what sort of introductory printed books and manuals might be useful for Mathematica, we might ask: what sort of introductory printed books and manuals are readily available, right now, for Illustrator? (Noting again that Illustrator does have good, well-organized, readily accessible online documentation as well --- along with helpful user forums on the Illustrator web site.)
A quick look at amazon.com then brings up a list of at least twelve (12) such introductory books or manuals on Illustrator. All of these books (list appended below) are currently available in stock on amazon (and three of them are on my bookshelf) --- as compared to _none_ (as yet, anyway) for Mathematica 6.
At least half of these Illustrator manuals can be identified as current editions of earlier versions that were published for earlier versions of Illustrator. In other words, earlier versions apparently sold well enough that authors were willing to write and publishers were willing to bring out 2nd, 3rd, even 4th editions of these publications for the current version of Illustrator.
Or in other words, for me anyway: The experimental evidence is that these books _clearly meet user needs_, sufficiently so that users buy them, including more than once; authors are willing to invest their energies in writing them; and publishers publish them.
Should Wolfram recognize this point?
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* Adobe Illustrator CS3 Classroom in a Book by Adobe Creative Team (2007) $35
* The Adobe Illustrator CS3 Wow! Book (WOW!) by Sharon Steuer (2007) $24
* Adobe Illustrator CS3 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques (How-Tos) by Karlins and Hopkins (2007) $10
* Real World Adobe Illustrator CS3 (Real World) by Mordy Golding (2007) $20
* Illustrator CS3 Bible by Ted Alspach ( 2007) $25
* Adobe Illustrator for Fashion Design by Susan Lazear (Jan 18, 2008) $35
* Fashion Designer's Handbook for Adobe Illustrator by Centner and Vereker (2007) $50
* Illustrator CS3 for Windows and Macintosh (Visual QuickStart Guide) by Weinmann and Lourekas (2007) $20
* Adobe Illustrator CS3 Revealed by Chris Botello (Aug 31, 2007) $45
* Best Practice: The Pros On Adobe Illustrator by Toni Toland (Aug 16, 2006) $35
* Adobe Illustrator CS2, Revealed, Education Edition by Chris Botello (2005) $40
* Illustrator CS for Dummies by Ted Alspach (2003) $25
