Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!jdm
From: jdm@ut-emx.UUCP (Jim Meiss)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Symbolic Equation Solvers (really Mathematica)
Summary: Warning 2.5Meg Needed, and no Manual Included!
Message-ID: <4524@ut-emx.UUCP>
Date: 27 Jul 88 14:58:10 GMT
References: <48520UOO@PSUVM> <46100193@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> <683@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu>
Reply-To: jdm@emx.UUCP (James Meiss)
Organization: UTexas Computation Center, Austin, Texas
Lines: 32

>In article <46100193@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> dsimkins@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>>
>>There is a program called Mathematica from Wolfram Research Inc. that runs
>>on Mac II's, Pluses and SE's.  The version for the II runs $795, and $495
>
>But not with one megabyte RAM.
	      ^^^
		In fact you must have 2, and really need 2.5Meg!!!
Note that nowhere in the ads for this product, nor on the package
does it mention this!!!!

	Furthermore, with Mathematica comes only a short manual on
the Mac interface, and no description of the "kernal" which is what
you really use. This means you have to go to Addison Wesley and spend
another $30 or so to get the book Mathematica by Wolfram. I think
this is really cheesy. When you spend $500 for a software package
you expect the manual to come with it. In my opinion, Mathematica is
practically unusable without the manual.
	Now I should be careful to say that there is extensive online
help in Mathematica, and this seems very nicely implemented, and for
all I know has all the information in there. But I simply can't find
a list of functions, for example, with their arguments.

	So the moral is, if you order this package, complain to
Wolfram research about this!

									
				Jim Meiss				
		 		jdm@emx.utexas.edu
				jdm%uta.MFENET@nmfecc.ARPA
									
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