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Comment by daly | Hacker News Reader

Wow. This "history" misses a LOT of other major efforts, muMath (Rich and Stoutemyer), Derive (Rich and Stoutemyer), Maple (Geddes and Labahn), Axiom (Griesmer and Jenks), SageMath (Stein), etc.

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That’s a well-known pattern with this author, which is why I’m not going to bother reading this, despite having an interest in the technology.

Wolfram is a blowhard with an ego too large for hyperspace. I remember attending a rambling lecture at the UIUC Beckman institute on his "new kind of science" topic with no interesting results and at the end of 65 minutes he said, "Are there any questions?" and everyone just stood up and began filing out of the room and Wolfram became irate, and began complaining that nobody had any questions - we had learned nothing at all.

Why should a memoir about Mathematica talk about other products?

Its about "a time before Mathematica" and it does talk about other products.

Yes Derive [1]. I remember Derive doing equations... Isolating variables for me was pure AI. Even if now AI is more about deep learning more than expression manipulations. Z3 [2] gave me a similar impression In my adulthood with Sudoku creations. Never Prolog .

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derive_%28computer_algebra_sys...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3_Theorem_Prover

and Macsyma/Maxima

Also magma and pari/gp had, and still have, their place

Both are still at least a decade ahead of Mathematica at arithmetic geometry and group theory.

derive.exe was like a super power in highschool.

If you have read anything about Wolfram, you'd be less surprised. Brilliant, but perhaps not so careful about related work. See http://shell.cas.usf.edu/~wclark/ANKOS_reviews.html for more ...

Yes, whilst I admire Wolfram's work, he combines hubris (e.g. Claiming to reinvent science[0]), with a tendency to ignore the work of others [1].

Hubris aside, he's not a conventional thinker, and I found his personal setup interesting [2].

[0] https://www.wolframscience.com/nks/

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science#Original...

[2] https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2019/02/seeking-the-prod...

I feel like he’s a decent guy with some kind of psychological disorder that makes him very unaware of the line between proper Western self-regard and very unbecoming arrogance.

He’s had tremendous success and impact through the work that his outlook on the world enabled. I can’t see how there’d be any incentive to update one’s self view in those circumstances.

> A New Kind of Review - by "a reader"

> I can only imagine how fortunate you must feel to be reading my review. This review is the product of my lifetime of experience in meeting important people and thinking deep thoughts. This is a new kind of review, and will no doubt influence the way you think about the world around you and the way you think of yourself.

Wolfram is an egoist of the highest order. Even Linus Torvalds had the good sense not go full ego and call his OS “Linus”.

PL designers have huge egos in general, often referring to themselves as benevolent dictators over their project. But most language authors name their language after a clever pun, a famous person in the field, or a loved one. Not Wolfram though, he named his language after himself — really takes it to a next level.

> Even Linus Torvalds had the good sense not go full ego and call his OS “Linus”.

Allegedly, Linus was going to call it "Freax", but a FUNET admin hated that name and forced the issue by naming the directory "linux".

Could you imagine? As if Linux doesn't have enough trouble finding mainstream support as it is, imagine if it were called Freax. My God nerds suck at marketing, and I mean that with so much love. I guess marketing types suck at writing operating systems, so it's unfair to expect the world from one guy.

I believe he truly sees the Wolfram language as an extension of himself, from the very beginning it was designed only based on his needs and desires. That others find it useful is just a happy accident.

Maybe it is just ego, or maybe it's something a bit more profound.

Tbf that’s the standard for many pl projects. It’s why so many anoint themselves as bdfl; they don’t want to lose control over the project and find themselves unable to execute their visions.

Many PLs start with one developer saying to themself “this tool suck, I could do it better.” What follows is an endeavor of so much breadth and depth it takes many years to execute on that vision, so pl designers become very attached to them. This is why there are a billion languages with only a single user: the designer.

If I manage to create a successful computing ecosystem, I plan to name myself after it. :)

I really don't see the difference with Linux on any level.

To be fair, wolfram is a pretty cool name in general. It sounds like a computing product already. I don't see how you can blame the guy for using that.

I'm not blaming him for anything. I guess you're taking being an egoist as a bad thing? It's needed for the role he's in. He just takes it to a next level, that's all. Like you said, he's got a cool name, why let that go to waste?

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