Group Abstract Group Abstract

Message Boards Message Boards

11
|
31.1K Views
|
26 Replies
|
120 Total Likes
View groups...
Share
Share this post:

What was your first Mathematica version ?

Daniel Carvalho, WOLFRAM
Posted 4 years ago

MODERATORS' NOTE: We will be displaying the collage of people's images at the top of this discussion. Dear all, please, do post the images of Wolfram things dear to your memories here :-) Thank you, Daniel Carvalho, for a delightful question!

enter image description here

Today installing Mathematica 12.3 I notes that there are previous versions installed too in my Linux box:

daniel@home:/opt/Wolfram/Mathematica$ ls -l
total 28
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 nov 20  2014 10.0
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 ago 14  2016 11.0
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 abr 26  2017 11.1
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 jun 26  2020 12.1
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 jan 12 23:20 12.2
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 mai 13 13:23 12.3
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 ago 19  2013 9.0.1

It is interesting to see that the older version is around 9 in 2013, and the years of installation for the other releases, according my folders.

In fact my first version of Mathematica was 4.0 (1999), for calculus classes in college.

In Computer Engineering that time we had 5 semesters of calculus classes, and just the last one we went to the lab to make some more interesting projects applying the theory to practical experiments. The basic calculus classes usually ware just whiteboard, pen and paper, book and exercises. A very traditional engineering college.

It was interesting getting the last exercises from lists, the most complex cases, and have it solved immediately!!

I can recall that version 6.0 was the most interesting for me, I have used it at master degree. Since version 6.0 I have been publishing lots of Demonstrations with the Manipulate function, it is really fun! It got my playing video game timing! :-)

In my parents house I found this boxes with my old college stuff:
enter image description here

I went to the Wolfram Summer School in 2007 while back in college for the Master in Electrical Engineering, and latter again in 2011 for a new research about NKS computational principles.

Latter on I get certified, Wolfram Certified Instructor

Since 2013 I have been organizing the Wofram conference in Brazil with Mackenzie University team and other friends, by my installations dates, I have used 9.0.1 at the first conference here. In 2021 and 2020 the conf is virtual for safety (remote): https://www.wolfram.com/events/virtual-conference-br/2020/

And now I am very excited with 12.3!!

The Mathematica versions history is available at: https://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/quick-revision-history.html

What was your first Mathematica version??
POSTED BY: Daniel Carvalho
26 Replies
Sort By:

Worldwide Mathematica Conference Chicago 1998

Attachment

Attachments:
IMG_3173.jpeg
POSTED BY: Jamie Peterson

A 3-ring conference binder, from back when we collected paper copies!
POSTED BY: Jamie Peterson

I still have my conference binder from 1999. Pages are long gone, though.
POSTED BY: George Woodrow III
David Keith
David Keith
Posted 4 years ago

Version 2.1 on Win 3.1. Things just keep on getting better!
POSTED BY: David Keith

My first look to Mathematica 4.0 in college lab was as an advanced calculator. I learned first at calculus handouts written by two professors: Iara Braz and Cleide Rizzatto.

We basically solved limits, derivatives and integrals. The good part is that in the standard calculus classes with pen and paper we just solve didactic books exercises without context, and with Mathematica we were able to look at more real problems and give the dirty work to Mathematica, and focus on problem-solving as an engineer really works, modeling problems as differential and integral equations, and checking graphically the solutions.

Latter I read some Mathematica books and lots of tutorials and documentations on the WEB. Mathematica online documentation is a good place to learn too, since the beginning.

Nowadays, I look at Mathematica and Wolfram Language as a mature platform, not just for calculus but to do all kinds of advanced computation and application.

Wolfram Language makes me lazy!!! :-) When I need to do something in Java, Python or JavaScript. Those other languages require a lot of boilerplate to get to the real problem-solving, most in data science!

I appreciate the responses! They are all very interesting perspectives!!
POSTED BY: Daniel Carvalho

A long time ago, out of the blue, my father purchased me a copy of Mathematica 2.2 for students during a Mac World Expo in Boston. I never asked for it, he just purchased it for me and I had not idea of what to do with it. At the time I preferred to use different product called Theorist from Prescience Corporation which was much easier to use, but not programmable. It took a long time to grow on me but eventually I realized that Mathematica was better because of its flexibility and power.
POSTED BY: Gustavo Delfino

I remember Theorist. I had a copy of it. It was an elegant program, and being a dedicated Mac Program, more polished rendering of 3-D graphics. According to the LiveMath website, the program was sold to Waterloo Maple. Ironic, in that Maple abandoned the Macintosh during the dark days.

I also remember going to MacWorld in Boston. Nice place to get swag.

POSTED BY: George Woodrow III
POSTED BY: George Woodrow III

Nice post! My first Mathematica version was also 4.0. I remember a physics professor that told us: you have to learn this! And then he started teaching us how to use it in his free time, of course with the intention we would become more productive in his classes of classical mechanics. Anyway I think the version I used more for university homework was 5.2.
POSTED BY: Francisco Rodríguez
Jari Kirma
Jari Kirma
Posted 4 years ago

My personal bet is that the first version I used was 2.2, on university AlphaStations back in 1995. Apparently the first version I wasn't using under university licensing scheme was 4.1.1. I have to conclude that I'm a latecomer, right? (Frankly I think the reason to get a license back then was that licensing structure had become more friendly to nonprofessional individuals, but I can't quite tell 20+ years since the event!)
POSTED BY: Jari Kirma

My first version of Mathematica is v2.2. I was solving a queueing model for performance analysis of a fault-tolerant system with it. Version 2 was released by floppy disks, but I could not find the box. Instead I post the picture of the box of Version 3, released by CD. I miss those days! enter image description here
POSTED BY: Kotaro Okazaki
Mark Harder
Mark Harder
Posted 4 years ago

My first experience with Mathematica was with whatever version was included in my purchase of a neXt computer in late 1990. I no longer have it or any documentation included. It might be 1.n or 2. Does anybody know what vsn. that would have been?
POSTED BY: Mark Harder

@Mark, perhaps this page can help you - Mathematica Quick Revision History:

https://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/quick-revision-history.html
POSTED BY: Vitaliy Kaurov
Mark Harder
Mark Harder
Posted 4 years ago

Thanks. The timing suggests that it was either 1.2 or 2.0.
POSTED BY: Mark Harder

My first version of Mathematica was an alpha test on a 1/4 inch tape to run on a Sun Workstation in my office at NCSA in Illinois in the 80s. Given to me by Stephen to test long before it was called Mathematica. I may have been the first user outside of his actual developers, not sure. I used it mainly on SunOS, but later I had it on a NeXT machine, also in alpha test, I got from Jobs if memory serves. I had to hide the NeXT machine at home as no one was supposed to see it yet. I think I may have the tape somewhere in storage.
POSTED BY: Steven Christensen

First version used was on an Apple (??) in college for a physics class ~1988. That professor went on to write a few Physics Lab books using Mathematica. Could not afford Apple machines let alone NeXT; so for home use I later purchased Mathematica 1.2 for 386 MS-DOS (1989?). Shorly after that I got a math co-processor and updated to 386/387 version of Mathematica. I could not find those boxes but it came with Stephen Wolfram's Mathematica Book "A System for..." and a few other manuals. I have upgraded and kept my license current since.

enter image description here
POSTED BY: Hans Michel

Thanks for sharing @George Woodrow III this a computing historical artifact! :-)
POSTED BY: Daniel Carvalho

box showing version number

front of v 1.1 box
POSTED BY: George Woodrow III

Thank you George. Looks elegant, and the box is in great condition.
POSTED BY: Ahmed Elbanna

Wow, you are way ahead of me, I think my first version was 7 - used it ever since (on Windows). I was exposed to Maple in the early 80's but as a student couldn't afford to buy it (or the required computing power). Fascinated by it in 1987 I started to develop my own "algebraic manipulator" on my IBM XT clone (8088 processor) with Turbo Prolog (Borland) which was quite effient given memory constraints. I got it to a point where I could do some basic functions similar to Mathematica's Collect[] , Expand[], D[], Integrate[] and Plot[]. It was command line based. I remember Prolog was perfect for constructing the parser, and the list like data structures made it very suitable for the application at the time. Proud of my progress I presented it to my research group at the Acoustics and Vibration lab (ME) at MIT, but received a lot of not exactly encouraging blank stares. It not being the focus of my research, I gave up on it. I feel that the experience of my own effort lets me better appreciate the accomplishment of what Mathematica is today.
POSTED BY: Kay Herbert
POSTED BY: Kay Herbert

version 2.2
POSTED BY: Frank Kampas

Very nice @Frank Kampas, any photo for anything related to V2.2?
POSTED BY: Ahmed Elbanna
POSTED BY: George Woodrow III

Wow @George Woodrow III, that is interesting. Would be very nice if you post here a photo of the box of Mathematica V1.1, but I understand if you don't have the time.
POSTED BY: Ahmed Elbanna

Look what I found most on Linux box:

daniel@home:/usr/local/bin$ ls -l Mathematica*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 53 mai 13 15:24 Mathematica -> /opt/Wolfram/Mathematica/12.3/Executables/Mathematica
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 53 jan 12 23:19 Mathematica12.2 -> /opt/Wolfram/Mathematica/12.2/Executables/Mathematica
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 53 jun 26  2020 Mathematica.old -> /opt/Wolfram/Mathematica/12.1/Executables/Mathematica
POSTED BY: Daniel Carvalho
Reply to this discussion
Community posts can be styled and formatted using the Markdown syntax.
Tag limit exceeded
Note: Only the first five people you tag will receive an email notification; the other tagged names will appear as links to their profiles.
Reply Preview
Attachments
Remove
or Discard