Dear Final Debug: I paid more than a grand for Mathematica 3 and now I see there’s a new version, 3.0.1. Is it worth upgrading?-Jack Peters, Chicago.
Final Debug Responds: As you all know, Mathematica is the standard for high-end technical computing. Its program for manipulating the most complicated computational functions is remarkably easy and seemingly endlessly extensible. There are Nobel Prize winners who swear by it. People use it to discover all sorts of new facts that go against conventional wisdom, as in the recent book by Dr. William Shaw, Modelling Financial Derivatives with Mathematica, which uncovers deep flaws in the standard textbook models for derivatives trading.
Jack knows, unlike most companies, Mathematica maker Wolfram Research charges for incremental upgrades such as the new 3.0.1. The price for the upgrade will vary based on when the program was bought, in what volume and for what platform, but here are some of the revisions in the newer version:
it runs 58 to 70 percent faster on Windows/Pentium systems
it offers several new types of integrals and transformations
it promises better printing and international features
If you’re not working on Windows, these upgrades aren’t a big deal. The new international features, however, are crucial if anyone on your team speaks an Asian language as a native tongue. The new version makes Mathematica work completely in Japanese and accomodates Kanji, Hiragana, or Katakana characters.
Jack, let us know if you go for the upgrade and how it works.
A Difficult New Contest
This time, we’re giving away our last book from O’Reilly and Associates until they send us a new one. It’s the second edition of Java in a Nutshell, updated for Java 1.1.
Considering our prize, a Java 1.1 question is in order:
How should the KeyAdapter class be adjusted for java.awt.event.KeyListener to work?
We recognize this is a deeply geeky question, but we’re tired of being told our questions are too easy. So, send us your answers. The author of the first correct answer we receive will win the book.
