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- Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.apps
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!emory!tridom!nut!sat
- From: sat@nut.tridom.com (Stephen Thomas)
- Subject: Re: Seeking Opinions on Mathcad
- Message-ID: <By0ppC.GFL@tridom.com>
- Sender: news@tridom.com
- Nntp-Posting-Host: nut.eng.tridom.com
- Reply-To: sat@eng.tridom.com
- Organization: AT&T Tridom
- References: <BxzC5L.Bqq@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu>
- Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 14:03:12 GMT
- Lines: 105
-
- In article Bqq@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu, mfprf@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (Paul R. Falzer) writes:
-
- >I just received an offer from the company to purchase the Mathcad
- >program for about $80 and would appreciate your assistance in
- >deciding whether I should buy it at that price.
-
- Since some of my comments may seem a bit disparaging, let me start off
- by saying that I love MathCad, and couldn't work without it. $80 is
- a pretty good price too. The best I've seen is a special $99 offer
- to Engineering professionals. The student price is around $125. BTW,
- make sure you're getting version 3.1 for Windows and not an out of
- date version.
-
- >My needs are for an equation editor that is more powerful and
- >flexible than AmiPro's
-
- I can't speak for AmiPro, but for pure documentation purposes, I've
- found that MathCad isn't as powerful as WordPerfect for Windows. This
- is completely understandable, though, as WPfW doesn't care about the
- content of your equations, while MathCad will only let you write an
- equation that it can understand.
-
- >and for a statistical analysis tool that
- >would give me the flexibility to write linear models and analyze
- >data accordingly. My first question is, how well would Mathcad
- >meet my needs relative to other programs on themarket--especially
- >in comparison with other stat packages such as SPSS?
-
- Statistical analysis is not a particulary strong suit of MathCad.
- You'd be much better off with a package designed for statistical
- analysis.
-
- >Second, Mathcad seems to resemble an electronic chalkboard.
-
- This is exactly true.
-
- >Besides its working with mathematical equations and models, what
- >(if any) are its other capabilities? For instance, does it have
- >an drawing, charting, or graphing capabilities?
-
- Drawing and charting: No. Graphing: Yes. The graphing stuff has a
- different focus than traditional presentation packages, though. It's
- designed more to graph a function (or functions), rather than a
- collection of data points. The 3D surface plotting is a bit
- primitive.
-
- >How effectively does it perform word processing and layout functions?
-
- It seems to do surprisingly well at layout. You just drag things
- around. I wouldn't try to use it as a serious WP though. It supports
- fonts and stuff, but not simple WP things like justification or
- spell checking.
-
- >Third, what else should I know about the program's overall and
- >specific strengths and weaknesses?
-
- I think that, by far, its biggest strength is its ease of use. You
- just enter an equation exactly like you're used to seeing it. You
- can do sophisticated Mathematical stuff (including symbolic), without
- having to learn a new programming language. When compared to other
- math programs (e.g. Mathematica), its not nearly as powerful, but
- I find it tons easier to use. If you're familiar with HP calculators,
- I'd say its roughly the equivalent of an HP48SX, but much easier to
- use. [HP48SX owners, no flames please; I have one and love it too.]
-
- >I am wondering about the
- >following items, among others: how fast is the program compared
- >with other significant applications?
-
- I can't give you any hard facts, but I almost never have to wait for
- it to do anything (redraw the screen, calculate a graph, ...) on
- my 386SX-16.
-
- >How well does it work with other programs?
-
- My biggest complaint is that it only imports graphics as bitmaps, not
- metafiles or as an OLE client.
-
- >How effectively does it function as an OLE server?
-
- I've never used this feature. (Maybe when WPfW 5.2 comes out, wish, wish, ...)
-
- >What's its memory and system resource demands?
-
- Light to moderate for a real Windows application.
-
- >Thanks in advance for your comments and opinions.
-
- Hope this helps. As a final suggestion, if you're not in a hurry, call MathSoft
- (800-628-4223) and get their free demo. It's almost fully functional. You're
- limited to one (non-resizable) window, you can't save your work, and it doesn't
- have the symbolic manipulation stuff. Otherwise, the demo is fully functional.
- I have a personal copy of MathCad (Windows) at home, and I'm trying to talk
- the folks here at work into getting one for our sparcs. To help convince them,
- I ordered the demo. While the bean counters go through the purchase cycle, I'm
- happily using the demo version as a (much improved)
- replacement for calctool. If you've got access to a space, email me. I'll be
- happy to email you a copy of the sparc demo. (The sample disk said to distribute
- freely.)
-
- ---
-
- Stephen Thomas AT&T Tridom (404-514-3522)
- email: sat@eng.tridom.com, attmail!tridom!sat
-
-