Mathematica.Frame
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
NeXTstep: The Ideal Platform for Mathematica February 1992 NeXTstep: The Ideal and extensibility. NeXTstep’s advantages for the Mathematica user include: Platform for Mathematica • Concurrent window interface: Mathemat- ica runs elegantly alongside other Executive Summary applications in NeXTstep’s true multitask- In fields as diverse as college mathematics, ing UNIX environment. engineering research, and financial modeling, the value and promise of Mathematica is well • Pure PostScript graphics: Display Post- known. NeXT understands and appreciates this Script provides identical imaging on the fact: Since the introductions of both Mathematica 92 dpi NeXT MegaPixel Display and on and the original NeXT Computer in 1988, every the NeXT 400 dpi Laser Printer, as well as NeXT computer delivered to users in education other PostScript output devices. has included Mathematica. • Interprocess communication: to create cus- Mathematica is at once a powerful and tom Mathematica applications in sophisticated calculator, a graphics application NeXTstep, (known as custom front ends to for three-dimensional imaging, a tool for Mathematica), a programmer can message symbolic manipulation, a high-level Mathematica via the Speaker/Listener pro- programming environment, and a medium for tocol to obtain computational results from creating interactive structured documents in Mathematica in a way that is completely Notebook format. transparent to users. One can message Hailed globally as one of the most valuable Mathematica itself or its computation tools for research, engineers and scientists have engine—the kernel. explored and solved thousands of problems via Mathematica on NeXT computers. With the • Mathematica Notebooks: NeXTstep is the Mathematica Notebook front end, faculty and only workstation platform for which Note- graduate students on campuses around the world books are available, making NeXTstep the use NeXT computers for courseware ideal environment for technical publishing development in math-intensive disciplines. And and courseware development. most recently, users in business—particularly in • Parallelization: with a NeXTstep applica- financial services—are exploiting Mathematica’s tion called Zilla, multiple Mathematica computational capabilities for building financial sessions may be invoked on networks of models and trading applications. Only the NeXT computers to allow the simultaneous NeXTstep implementation of Mathematica solution of different parts of a large prob- offers these complete features for such a broad lem. range of users. This paper describes the features and benefits • Media processing: sounds and images may enjoyed by users who run Mathematica on be acquired using NeXT computers and NeXTstep. For more information on NeXTstep, further analyzed via Mathematica. please consult companion papers in the NeXT • Superior processor and operating system White Paper Library by calling 1-800-879-NeXT. technologies: many problems previously unassailable on less powerful desktop com- I. Introduction: Understanding the puters can now be addressed using NeXT’s NeXTstep Advantages 25 MIPS computational power and robust multitasking and virtual memory. To appreciate the overall superiority of Mathe- matica running on the NeXT platform, it is important to understand that NeXTstep— “. not all versions of Mathematica are NeXT’s graphical user interface and application created equal.” development environment—allows Mathemat- —Byte, February 1991 ica to run with unprecedented power, flexibility, 1 NeXTstep: The Ideal Platform for Mathematica February 1992 Figure 1 Multimedia cut-and-paste facilities available in all NeXTstep applications. A graphic image is cut from Mathematica and pasted into a NeXTmail Send Window so it may be sent to a colleague. Sounds can be pasted as easily. II. Concurrent Window Interface features shared by all NeXTstep applica- tions: the ability to graph frequency The user running Mathematica starts with the response curves, or work out circuit param- considerable advantage of a standard NeXTstep eters numerically and generate tables, or application: Not only are the menus, windows, and perform statistical analyses. dialog panels extensive and consistent with all other In addition, the NeXT user may keep Mathemat- NeXTstep applications, but all text and graphics ica running—yet hidden—in the application dock, employ the industry-standard PostScript imaging ready for recall at any time. Because of the refined model. This means the user may cut and paste infor- and well-tested efficiency of the Mach UNIX multi- mation, including text, graphics, sounds, and anima- tasking operating system, Mathematica requires vir- tion sequences, readily between Mathematica tually no overhead until the user calls for it; windows and other application windows—capabili- Mathematica can be launched at the beginning of a ties lacking in Sun platforms and MS-DOS and Win- login session and always be in a state of readiness dows environments. without consuming memory or CPU cycles. • An application called CircuitBuilder, for example, generates explicit circuit equa- III. Pure PostScript Graphics tions into one of its windows. These often- formidable equations can be pasted imme- A large, high-resolution graphics display is diately into the window of a concurrently required for Mathematica users. The NeXT Mega- executing Mathematica application. When Pixel Display—a two-page monitor, the minimum the equations are solved via Mathematica, standard for all NeXT computers—is ample space to the user then can benefit from a range of view multiple Mathematica sessions and other tasks; 2 NeXTstep: The Ideal Platform for Mathematica February 1992 and the PostScript imaging model built into NeXT- data, whereby a fourth dimension is indi- step, provides the highest quality graphics available cated by the use of color. Data points today. Most other desktop platforms do not offer (x,y,z,w) where w is a fourth parameter, can these capabilities. be visualized by allowing w to be repre- sented by a range of hues, say from red to “[On an MS-DOS platform] Graphics, violet. A related example involves plotting when they finally appeared, took over the amplitude and phase of a complex function entire screen, making it impossible to using a colored surface. In this case phase examine graphs side-by-side with the might be represented by a hue. associated mathematical expressions.” IV. Custom Front Ends—Integrating —PC Week, August 12, 1991 Mathematica With NeXTstep A Unified Imaging Model A primary advantage of the NeXT platform is the ability to create custom NeXTstep front ends to Having co-developed Display PostScript with Mathematica—separate code yet integrated applica- Adobe Systems, Inc., NeXT employs PostScript for tions that take advantage of Mathematica’s power all imaging, whether to a screen, a printer, an image- while the complexity of its syntax is hidden from the setter, or a fax machine. Unlike other platforms, user. The ability to create custom front ends using NeXTstep running Mathematica does not present Mathematica as a core engine is significantly faster the user with two imaging models, one for screen dis- and easier to do in NeXTstep than in other develop- play and one for printing. Furthermore, Mathematica ment environments. NeXTstep provides all the tools renders graphic images in PostScript across all plat- necessary for users to begin writing custom front forms. This allows, for example, seamless integra- ends: a complete library of interface objects and a tion of Mathematica images generated on other powerful program construction tool, Interface vendors’ platforms and brought into the NeXT envi- Builder. ronment. Interface Builder is NeXT’s tool for graphical As described in the previous section, graphics— interface development and project management. both color and gray-scale—may also be pasted Interface Builder improves programmer productivity between NeXTstep applications. Color graphics are with its complete environment for laying out, con- managed just as easily as gray-scale graphics, since structing, and testing interfaces and managing the color is an integral part of the PostScript model; and objects comprising an application. more complete color support is provided by Post- The NeXTstep Application Kit—NeXT’s class Script Level II, that is implemented in NeXTstep library of more than 100 optimized objects—allows Release 3. Release 3 uses new features in PostScript interapplication communication via NeXT’s Speaker/ Level II to provide device-independent color match- Listener protocol. The Application Kit also ing—so the user is always assured of consistent out- includes a set of core objects that provide the put regardless of which printer happens to be used. framework required by any application, and a • A consistent graphics model across color powerful set of interface and support objects that and gray-scale and across different output provide advanced functionality well beyond the devices provides a distinct benefit in areas windowing toolkits found in other workstation such as chaos research. Whether the prob- platforms. lem involves bifurcation, fractals, or phase Users will find a variety of commercially avail- transitions, the user generally confronts tre- able objects that allow Mathematica to be called mendous complexity. This complexity from within Interface Builder. Or programmers can often manifests itself as a fine graphical write their own code to message Mathematica via detail, hence the advantage of high-resolu-