An Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language

This textbook written by Stephen Wolfram is an essential for those who have Mathematica 10. I have done a review and gave my recommendation to Hands-on Start to Wolfram Mathematica by Cliff Hastings, Kelvin Michio, and Michael Morrison earlier this year and now Wolfram Media has added this to the collection. Stephen Wolfram is the founder and president of Wolfram, the publisher of Mathematica. Wolfram is an excellent teacher and textbook writer in addition to being a programming genius who brought forth Mathematica, the premier computation software package out there. He begins by saying The Mathematica Handbook which was discontinued in 2007 with the fifth edition because at 1500 pages had reached the limit for a hardbound handbook. Wolfram writes that the current edition, 10.3, would have to be 50,000 pages and be equivalent to the Encyclopedia Brittanica in length. Much too much for a reference manual. Wolfram says that all the information is in the Help section of the program. Mathematica has the most extensive on-line documentation of any major software program. He goes through most of the program giving an overview of the programs features. He gives examples which are supplemented by professional illustrations. He lingers on the newer areas Mathematica addresses. That is, features added since the fifth edition from 2007. He doesn't spend too much time on pure mathematics--the Hands-on Introduction by Hastings, et al. covers that nicely. Also, old copies of the fifth edition of the Mathematica Handbook are still valid. Wolfram never throws away anything. He does simplify a few of the math functions, however. On page 295 he includes a chapter on "What We Haven't Discussed." This chapter mentions topics such as User Interface Construction, Function Visualization, Geometry, and "The Computational Universe". The Computational Universe is the title to Stephen Wolfram's bestseller, A New Kind of Science, 2002. Wolfram does appreciate the value of editing keeping An Elementary Introduction to 324 pages. Wolfram's Introduction is extremely readable and the author does say a 12-year-old, sixth-grader​, would be able to use his manual, as well as any adult. If you get the Home Edition of Mathematica 10.3 you should buy these two books. For textbooks, these are priced as any soft-back book would be, not like a super-expensive college textbook. I recommend Wolfram's Introduction to the Wolfram Language highly.

A very useful book for learning the Wolfram Language. It is not a quick start --- more like a deep dive. At first the structure of the book seems perverse e.g., assignment is not mentioned till a very late section. But if you do most of the Exercises you soon appreciate the economy and logic of this introduction. If you persist then you will learn the Language at much more than a superficial level. I noticed a few errors in the exercises. Most of these are corrected in the online version. But here is one example that is wrong in the book and also wrong online: Exercise 32.1 Find the lists beginning with 1 and ending with 9 in IntegerDigits[Range[1000]. The approved answer does not deliver {1,9}. A correct code is Select[IntegerDigits[Range[1000]], Last[#] == 9 && First[#] == 1 &]. Unfortunately this doesn't use the material in section 32. A minor annoyance is that there is no easy way to report errata to the author.

There is no doubt that Mathematica is capable of spectacular computational fireworks, but although this book devotes a reasonable amount of space to recently implemented advanced features, much of the text is very elementary and repeats material adequately descibed elsewhere. I had hoped for a book that was less of a reference manual to isolated Mathematica functions and more of an integrated explanation of the entire Mathematica paradigm. Additional material on programming would have been helpful as well.

Mathematica is an exceptional program. When you first get it, you might feel overwhelmed about how to get started. When you check the web site, you will see there are thousands of pages of documentation on this program, simply because it is so feature rich and capable. Stephen has written a book that is aimed at the beginning user. It is wonderfully written and takes you gently into the core features of the Wolfram Language and in particular, the features in Mathematica. If you are just getting Mathematica, this is the book to start with. It will bring you up to speed in a hurry with all the basics. Then you can dive into the reference material available on the web site - and as I said, there is a ton of documentation.

I'm not new to programming. I've written plenty in assembly, C,C++,C#, python, ruby, MATLAB, etc. The Wolfram language is like nothing I've encountered before, and I found this book useful even for a more seasoned programmer like myself. Symbolic programming, and the wolfram language, forces you to think differently about writing code (for() loops are and should be discouraged), and this is a most excellent and comprehensive introduction. It's also quite gentle, variables and functions and other low-level structures aren't even introduced until quite late in the book. I highly recommend this affordable and excellent text for anyone interested in learning mathematica or the wolfram language.

There is a wealth of information online for the Wolfram language. In fact, there is so much that it is sometimes daunting to sift through everything to get to what you want. This book provides you with a starting point to indicate in which direction you might want to begin your exploration. For new users, it is a good place to start.learning the current version of the language. Keep in mind that (like many languages) this a dynamic product and that additions are always around the corner. Online is the final destination for keeping up to date..If you're using an older version, some things in this book do not exist..

The book arrived today. Different people have different ways of learning. But for me this book is exactly what I wanted. Great job. Actually after plodding through the Hands-On-Start book, also relatively new, I find it is a worthwhile book too, though I skipped a lot of the material I was not interested in. Both books help make the transition from older versions of Mathematica to this latest one. Bravo Mr. Wolfram!

章末問題の回答が全て１行である所に著者の高いプライドが感じられる。

Not only an excellent introduction from the the originator of the language but has unique and helpful insights and examples. Invaluable as a reference text at whatever level.

Libro escrito por el CEO y fundador, S. Wolfram, que muestra de una forma muy amena y didáctica los conceptos básicos del Lenguaje Wolfram. Muy recomendable.

Timely delivery. Book in excellent shape ... basically new. Thumbs up.

Para quem quer realmente aprender matemática, outras ciências naturais e linguagem de computador para aplicações diversas. Vou adquirir volumes mais adiantados para aplicações no software Wolfram Alpha.