Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!malcolm
From: malcolm@Apple.COM (Malcolm Slaney)
Newsgroups: comp.dsp
Subject: Re: Communicating DSP Equations
Summary: Mathematica Notebooks
Message-ID: <34990@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 24 Sep 89 19:02:20 GMT
References:  <1989Sep20.195449.3833x@ivucsb.sba.ca.us> <7070001@hpnmdla.HP.COM> <459@eedsp.gatech.edu> <668@suntops.Tops.Sun.COM> <19237@gatech.edu>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 51

In article <19237@gatech.edu> ken@gatech.UUCP (Ken Seefried III) writes:
>>In a slightly different vein... does anyone have an idea for a way to share
>>equations with a (hopefully large) group of net users?  One particular 
>>platform's graphics or typesetting would likely be out.  I'm thinking of
>>postscript, but I have no idea of the spread of users that could use it.
>
>Personally, I would advocate TeX/LaTeX for communicating equations.

I think Mathematica notebooks are a better medium for distributing signal
processing ideas.  While it is true that Mathematica's notation is a bit 
baroque the advantage of having runnable code with graphics and text is
pretty important.  A well written notebook can be read like a normal paper
but since all the equations are "live" readers can modify them and use the
equations in their own investigations.  Perhaps, someday the notation might
be prettier but I think live, interactive documents are the way to go.

It is important to note, also, that Mathematica notebooks are straight ASCII
text.  This makes them very digestible by bulletin board software.  In addition
a free Mathematica notebook reader is available for the Mac (so you can see
the graphics) (and I guess the NeXT too :-).  On other machines (PCs, Suns, 
etc) the notebooks can be read and used for new work but all the benefits of
a notebook aren't available, yet.

An example of this type of document is a report titled "Lyon's Cochlear Model,"
which I wrote to describe some of the research we are doing at Apple.  I used
Mathematica to write and distribute this report because I wanted readers to
be able to explore the design as I had when writing the report.  The appendix 
to the report includes a large number of functions for designing and plotting 
continuous and discrete second order sections.  This report is available
for free from me (malcolm@apple.com) or from the Apple Corporate Library if
you send a paper mail address.  (The notebook has so many graphics that it is 
1.5Mbytes long so it is a bit large for mass distribution over the networks.  
The technical report has been published as a typeset paper with an attached 
Macintosh floppy that contains the electronic version of the notebook.)

I describe other benefits of Mathematica notebooks for signal processing in
an upcoming article in the January 1990 issue of IEEE Signal Processing 
Magazine (the tutorial and general interest magazine).  I see the main 
benefits of a Mathematica-style notebook for research and publishing as:
	1)	An interactive research and learning environment.
	2)	Hypermedia for learning tailored to the reader's needs.
	3)	A literate programming environment.

TeX and even Troff are wonderful pieces of software but they only solve part 
of the problem.  Computers give us the ability to interact with our 
environment so why should we be stuck with static papers?

						Malcolm Slaney
						Speech and Hearing Project
						Apple Computer
						malcolm@apple.com