On May 29, 2007, at 11:02 AM, William Stein wrote:
> In fact, the Mathematica documentation has something to say about this > (see > http://reference.wolfram.com/mathematica/tutorial/ > WhyYouDoNotUsuallyNeedToKnowAboutInternals.html): > > "Particularly in more advanced applications of Mathematica, it may > sometimes seem worthwhile to try to analyze internal algorithms in > order to predict which way of doing a given computation will be the > most efficient. And there are indeed occasionally major improvements > that you will be able to make in specific computations as a result of > such analyses. > > But most often the analyses will not be worthwhile. For the internals > of Mathematica are quite complicated, and even given a basic > description of the algorithm used for a particular purpose, it is > usually extremely difficult to reach a reliable conclusion about how > the detailed implementation of this algorithm will actually behave in > particular circumstances." Wow. I can't believe they actually said that. What incredible arrogance. I think this in itself demonstrates pretty clearly why open source alternatives are necessary. david --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URLs: http://sage.scipy.org/sage/ and http://modular.math.washington.edu/sage/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
