MathGroup

The Email Group for Mathematica Users

Comparison of Mathematica on Various Computers

comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica

on the Internet. Contact your local system administrator to find out how to read this new group.

A listing of interesting Mathematica-related sites.

MathGroup is a moderated electronic mail list, not a list server. This avoids flame wars and trivial questions that plague net newsgroups. Members of the group post their questions to the mailing list and usually receive rapid and expert help with their Mathematica questions. Many of the leading experts on Mathematica inside and outside of Wolfram Research read and respond to user comments and problems.

Before posting to the mailing list or newsgroup, please consider looking at the Technical Questions about Mathematica pages at Wolfram Research or search the previous postings in the archives discussed below.

Important MathGroup Email Addresses:

Standard email addresses:

Send comments or questions to mathgroup@smc.vnet.net

is the address for mailing questions to MathGroup.

• mathgroup-request@smc.vnet.net is the address for requesting to join or be removed from the list and for other administrative questions.
• mathgroup@wolfram.com is also valid for communication with MathGroup.

MathGroup/Newsgroup Archives:

Before you post to the mailing list or newsgroup, you might want to search in one of the two sites:

• Search MathGroup page.
• Google Newsgroup Search Page

• These rules apply to both the newsgroup comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica and to the MathGroup mailing list.
• This is a TECHNICAL discussion newsgroup. It is not a group for discussion of your special licensing, purchasing, or other non-technical questions. These should all go directly to Wolfram Research. General information questions on what Mathematica is or where to buy it should be send to info@wolfram.com or obtained from the Wolfram Research web page at http://www.wolfram.com.
• If you receive useful information from members of the list to questions you post, summarize it and send the summary back to the group for posting.
• If you have developed interesting programs and notebooks that might be of interest to others, please let us know.
• This is NOT a group for posting general mathematics questions. Those should go elsewhere like sci.math. You can ask questions like "I have the following problem in mathematics. How would I solve this with Mathematica."
• This is not a group for selling or buying a used copy of Mathematica or related software. The appropriate groups are:

  misc.forsale.computers.pc-specific.software,
  misc.forsale.computers.mac-specific.software, and
  misc.forsale.computers.other.software

• The newsgroup and mailing list are moderated. I read every post and they do not go out until I have read them. I filter out about 25% of the posts and send them elsewhere or answer them myself.
• Posts to the mailing list go to mathgroup@smc.vnet.net or mathgroup@wolfram.com. If you do not know how to post to the moderated newsgroup or your site does not have the newsgroup, pressure your system administrator to add it.
• PLEASE SEARCH THE ARCHIVES BEFORE YOU ASK WHAT MIGHT BE A COMMON QUESTION. See the links above for this.
• The content of this forum is available by way of Usenet through the newsgroup comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica. Because there is no universal mechanism for transmitting eight-bit character codes on Usenet newsgroups, we strongly encourage you to make sure that your postings contain plain, 7-bit ASCII text. Because many newsreaders do not support the MIME format, we discourage the posting of single-part messages that employ quoted printable encoding and multi-part messages (attachments).
• The newsgroup and mailing list receive the SAME information. If you do not like getting about 20 emails a day, read the newsgroup and do not join the mailing list. If you can read the newsgroup, please ask to be taken off the mailing list. It will lower the load on my machine. Due to processing delays the newsgroup can get the posts as much a 24 hours faster than the mailing list.
• I DO NOT accept flames, "me too", or non-constructive critical email. I will simply not post such mail. Try to obey the net etiquette.
• DO NOT make negative comments about other posters. Such posts will be sent back for modifications.
• I will not post bug reports unless you have already sent them to Wolfram Research also. Be sure that what you are sending is a bug and not your ignorance of Mathematica. Read the manuals and books first. Nine out of ten bug reports I have seen are not bugs.
• I often get 10 or 20 of the same answer to a question. After the first two or so, I will not post the others unless there is something new in a later answer.
• THIS IS NOT A PLACE TO DISCUSS ANY OTHER MATHEMATICS SOFTWARE. WE DO NOT CARE ABOUT OTHER SYSTEMS OR WHAT THEY CAN DO. STICK TO MATHEMATICA ONLY QUESTIONS. IF YOU MUST ASK QUESTIONS RELATED TO OTHER SYSTEMS, POST THEM TO SCI.MATH.SYMBOLIC OR OTHER NEWSGROUPS.
• I WILL NOT POST COMPARISONS OF MATHEMATICA AND OTHER SYSTEMS.
• If you do mention another system in your post, I will probably edit it out if it does not really affect the post or send it back to you for editing or posting elsewhere.
• Some of you are using strange editors that leave control characters in your posts. Please try to avoid this. I have to edit them out for the posts to be readable.
• If your email address does not appear fully in your post to the newsgroup fix your news system so that it does.
• Questions about when the next version of Mathematica will be coming out will not be posted. Contact Wolfram Research. If you want to post something about a future release, make sure you are not violating any non-disclosure agreements and that what you are posting is accurate. When in doubt, ask your Wolfram Research beta testing contact.
• I will accept Mathematica related commercial announcements so long as they are short and don't contain too much hype.
• Please do not post a message more than once. If you do not see your post one week after you sent it, email me. Mail goes out once or twice a day unless my machine or network link is down.
• I will not post mail asking where to get Mathematica. Contact Wolfram Research, info@wolfram.com, for that.
• When you are having trouble with some Mathematica function or program, post as much information as you have - like the full session where the problem occurred - so that it is easier to find the problem.
• If your copy of Mathematica is not registered - do it!
• The funny [mg....] label in the Subject line of messages is the number of the post for the MathGroup mailing list readers. These will not correspond to the numbers in your newsreaders.
• If you have done some interesting work that might be of value to others, let us know and consider sending it to MathSource.
• If you get error messages from a site on the net, send the entire message to me so that I can delete the offending site. My setup tries to avoid bounced mail, but it still happens.
• If your receiving machine is down a lot it is likely that your address will be removed. If you wish to unsubscribe, make sure you send the address that you used to subscribe.
• MathGroup is not a list server. Vague messages like "help" or "subscribe" are not sufficient. The list is not automated, so when you send a message it is read by a "human" - me. Make sure your message is clear.
• These efforts are supported by Wolfram Research, Inc., Sun Microsystems, Inc., MathTensor, Inc., and Steven M. Christensen and Associates, Inc. free of charge. You can assist in this effort by purchases of our software, telling others of our good works, and by helping your fellow Mathematica users with advise and assistance. If the assistance you get is valuable in your work, please acknowledge this effort by sending comments to me.

Send comments or questions to steve@smc.vnet.net

© Copyright 2005 Steven M. Christensen and Associates, Inc.

This page was last updated on January 31, 2005.