Wolfram Language, any one using it?

I read today’s blog from Jamie Todd Robin - Goals for 2023. I regularly enjoy reading his blog but I am particularly interested in today’s content. It mentioned Wolfram Language that got me really interested.

I am not an academic or a researcher, just a plain , passionate learner. I just signed up for a trial to see what it can do to my general interest, may be on pkm workflow? I do not know what it can or cannot do to me

Just want to share this , as I do not see much mention of this on the forum.

I am hopeful that there are some seasoned user that can share their thoughts and insights on use case, etc

2 Likes

I lookeda t it as a possibility for AnimalTrakker but it got so convoluted in how to wrok it and get it running on all platforms that I gave up.

1 Like

Do you want to spend $400+ on Mathematica software? I think you’d be better off learning Python along with the scientific libraries used around it, NumPy and SciPy, etc.

2 Likes

I am–but I also worked at the company for 13 years and co-wrote a beginner’s guide to using the language, so… :slight_smile:

4 Likes

@Helios wins the Internet today.

3 Likes

I think there are several former or current Mathematica users here. Wolfram on the CLI, as he’s doing, is a pretty niche application, especially as used to automate Obsidian.

It seems part of the appeal for the author is that he’s been there and done that with the standard starter programming languages for automation (not a criticism.) I’m guessing you haven’t done much with Python or JavaScript to control Obsidian yet, so you’d have the same fun with those languages as he’s having with Wolfram.

That said, if you are feeling grabbed by Wolfram, I’d just run with it; you’ll learn a lot and enjoy it. I believe you can sign up for a free developer account, at least for an initial learning/experimenting period.

2 Likes

I have been using Mathematica for a long time, going back all the way to the year 2000 (give or take) as a student. I have tried to stray away into the Python world, but always found that I ran into incompatibilities when I tried to get data from one module to another. Of course, could just be that I’m not as familiar with Python stuff, so YMMV.

I wrote a blog post a while ago comparing Mathematica with JupyterLab (but using Julia, not Python) to plot some health data I pulled out of Apple’s Health App:

When thinking of Python for analysis one must consider and use Pandas, Numpy, Scipy, Jupyter, and other high end tools. Python just the language but also provide a huge and rich set of libraries. These tools provide the capability.

1 Like

I was referring to those higher end tools when I said I ran into issues using them together. There always seemed to be an issue getting data out from one module and into another. From my experience, Mathematica’s language seemed to be more coherently designed and thus things work better together.

One vendor, Mathematica is. of course it works that way.

That being said i have had much success with the Python world, including data exchange using the accepted standards and methods. Over a couple of decades and continuing.

The power in Wolfram Language is its ability to build commands to do things using a syntax that is designed to be human-readable even to the mostly uniformed.

With no pre-defined intent in mind, you are doing the equivalent of learning a new language for fun. Time will till whether this new language turns out to be as useful for you only as an archeologist in Egypt might need Sanskrit or truly as a south Texan might need Spanish.


JJW

1 Like