
What We’ve Built Is a Computational Language - lainon
https://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2019/05/what-weve-built-is-a-computational-language-and-thats-very-important/
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mimixco
One could make the point that Wolfram language is really a library of cloud
functions which require their proprietary cloud service to be useful. It also
looks a lot like a Lisp with M-expressions.

While a lot of those functions are impressive, what makes Wolfram a non-
starter for me is the fact that you can't build a deployable app with it with
anything but a notebook interface. A notebook might be great for a researcher
but it's not a good interface for many other kinds of programs.

I also have an issue with Wolfram's documentation or the lack thereof. Because
the functions take weird and unpredictable arguments, it's difficult to wrap
one's head around what might fit where. This is a strong contrast to Lisp
where the meanings of arguments are unambiguous, encouraging exploration and
invention because you can keep the language "in your head." Wolfram creates
dependencies on their cloud sever and their doc which will always make it
niche.

~~~
techgipper
>>you can't build a deployable app with it with anything but a notebook
interface. A notebook might be great for a researcher but it's not a good
interface for many other kinds of programs.

There are several IDEs one can use:
[https://www.wolfram.com/developer/resources/](https://www.wolfram.com/developer/resources/)

>>I also have an issue with Wolfram's documentation or the lack thereof.

There are literally tens of thousands of pages of documentation?
[https://reference.wolfram.com/language/](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/)

~~~
mimixco
What I meant is the interface of the _built app,_ not an IDE.

Whenever I bring up Wolfram doc, someone tells me there are thousands of
pages. I know that. Have you read any of them? They're not like any programmer
doc I've ever seen. Instead of explaining principles and rules, they just give
a lot of examples. It's not really helpful and it helps cement my position
that Wolfram is more of a library than a language.

