Mathematica 4.0 was released in April 1999. You can now view our Mathematica notebooks without using Math Reader. For more information on how to obtain Mathematica 4.0, please go to the Wolfram Research Inc. site.

• What new capabilities does Mathematica 3.0 have?
  
  -Menu Help: Since Mathematica 3.0 has new commands, it is important to have help available to explain these new commands. This is what Menu Help in Mathematica 3.0 does.
  
  -Exporting HTML: Now the work you do in a Mathematica notebook can be viewed on the web. With its ability to export text, graphics, and mathematical functions to HTML, Mathematica 3.0 offers a whole new outlet for information dissemination and learning. When SPIMSOW began this summer, we encountered problems with exporting HTML. There seemed to be a problem connecting to the Mathematica local kernel, which is required before Mathematica notebooks can be converted to HTML. We now know that it is actually easier to put Mathematica notebooks on the Web if you do not use HTML. To learn more about putting Mathematica notebooks on the Web see our Tutorials Page.
  
  -Create function palettes: Mathematica 3.0 allows users to create their own function palettes.
  
  -Hyperlinked text: Mathematica 3.0 allows the user to create hyperlinks. With a click of the mouse, the user can connect to other parts of the same notebook or another notebook. This allows the user to find information about a topic without having to unnecessarily open and close Mathematica notebooks. To learn more about using hyperlinks to improve your notebooks see our Tutorials Page.
  
  -More Functions: Mathematica 3.0 offers the user more functions than older versions. Along with this comes the creation of the function palette (see Palettes below).
  
  -Graphics on the Web: Now graphics can appear on the Web just as easily as text. Saving graphics as either "bit map" or "pict" files allows both easy conversion to HTML and easy set up on the Web. As was the case with exporting to HTML, there is actually an easier way to get a notebook with graphics on the Web. To learn more about putting graphics on the Web see our Tutorials Page .
  
  
• What has improved?
  
  -Help browser: Mathematica 3.0 has a help browser which offers more information than other versions and is more user friendly.
  
  -Palettes: With the addition of function palettes, Mathematica 3.0 has become more like an easy to use calculator. These palettes give the user a list of functions available, making these functions more accessible.
  
  -Manipulation of Graphics: Now Mathematica allows the user to rotate graphs, choose plot formats, and perform many other graphic manipulations. The graphics are better and easier to use.
  
  
• What capabilities would we like to see Mathematica perform in the future?
  
  -Interactive Web pages: Currently, the web pages created using Mathematica do not allow web-users to change functions or parameters. They can only view what is on the Web without manipulating it. If they want to manipulate the notebooks they find on the Web, they must download the notebooks to their computer and open them using Mathematica 3.0. This means they need to have Mathematica 3.0 on their computers to be able to play around with the web pages. To simply view Mathematica web pages on their computers, users will need to download the Math Reader (reads Mathematica notebooks) program which is readily available from the Mathematica Web Site. To learn more about this program and how to download it see SPIMSOW's set-up page.
  

Mathematica 4.0 was released in April 1999. You can now view our Mathematica notebooks without using Math Reader. For more information on how to obtain Mathematica 4.0, please go to the Wolfram Research Inc. site.

Links to Other Mathematica Information

Our Mathematica Notebooks
The Mathematica web-site
The MathReader [Download] web-site