I think it's good. The only part I don't like is how the quote about Mathematica seems to get the "last word in" about knowing verification. Perhaps something like
If one reads the proof of Jane's theorem in hopes of extending her ideas or applying them in a new context, it is limiting to not have access to the inner workings of the software on which Jane's result builds. [[[Dispite this? (For example doesn't seem to fit here, though it would fit better up one paragraph right after "...makes mistakes." and I think is stronger there.)]]], consider the following quote from the Mathematica tutorial: "Particularly in more advanced applications of Mathematica, it may sometimes seem worthwhile to try to analyze internal algo- rithms in order to predict which way of doing a given computation will be the most efficient. [...] But most often the analyses will not be worthwhile. For the internals of Mathematica are quite com- plicated, 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." [In contrast, [in many instances] we have [personally] found it useful and insightful to inspect and understand [[and even extend?]] specific algorithms. Oh, and drop the last comma "from a broad range of topics[[[,]]] into a comprehensive toolkit..." - Robert On Aug 4, 2007, at 5:21 PM, William Stein wrote: > Tom, > > Thanks for your comments. Note that there are two completely separate > versions of the oscas article now. I've attached "my" version, > which takes > into account some of your comments (though most of your comments were > about the other version). > > -- William > > On 8/4/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> "The aim is to provide software that can be used to explore and >> experiment with mathematicas." >> >> First off, I think you don't want an extra "a" in mathematics. I >> think the SAGE community has, by and large, taken an anti- >> mathematica standpoint. ;) >> >> Second, that sentence makes SAGE sound like fluff. You send 12 >> year olds to summer camp to explore and expermient. >> >> >> "Free and open source: If you use SAGE to do computations in a >> classroom or paper you publish, you can rest assured that users >> world- >> wide will always be able to use your code due to free access to >> SAGE >> and all its source code." >> >> This one makes me feel funny. The phrase "rest assured" sounds >> like something an insurance salesman would say. >> >> >> "Efficient: SAGE uses highly-optimized robust components that are >> very fast at certain basic arithmetical operations." >> >> _basic_ operations? What, we optimized the hell out of 2+2? Who >> cares? We've got fast p-adics, graph isomorphism, groebner >> bases... this is *much* cooler than *certain* basic arithmetic. >> Nix this for something like, >> >> "Agile: SAGE recieves contributions from dozens of mathematicians >> worldwide to bring the latest algorithms from a broad range of >> topics, into a comprehensive toolkit for mathematics research." >> >> >> The last paragraph is absolutely wonderful. >> >> >> On Sat, 4 Aug 2007, David Joyner wrote: >> >>> >>> Hi: >>> >>> William Stein and I have written a draft >>> http://sage.math.washington.edu/home/wdj/research/oscas-ams- >>> notices4.pdf >>> which seems suitable (based on suggestions and criteria given to >>> us by >>> the editor >>> Andy Magid). Thoughts anyone? >>> >>> - David Joyner >>> >>>> >>> >> >> >> >>> >> > > > -- > William Stein > Associate Professor of Mathematics > University of Washington > http://www.williamstein.org > > > > <oscas-jane_version.pdf> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
