Brand-New www.wolfram.com

Our web site has been completely redesigned for the release of Mathematica 4. Take a look--our new site includes our new Resource Library, which contains tutorials, demos, FAQs, and more. New information is added all the time--check back often!

Application Packages Now Version 4 Compatible

Registered users of Control System Professional, Electrical Engineering Examples, Finance Essentials, Signals and Systems, Time Series, and Wavelet Explorer can download updates for Mathematica 4 compatibility.

Don't Forget...

...if you subscribe to Premier Service when you upgrade to Mathematica 4 by August 31, 1999, you'll receive 50% off the upgrade price. Find out more about the new features and enhancements in Mathematica 4.

A "Novel" Use for Mathematica

Mathematica has been put to many novel uses, and now author Neal Stephenson has put it to use in a novel. Recently on The New York Times bestseller list, Stephenson's highly praised Cryptonomicon contains several calculations and diagrams produced by the author with Mathematica. One series of diagrams involved generating the profile of a mountain in cross section; Stephenson programmed Mathematica to generate an appropriate fractal curve.

Technology Update: Database Access Kit

Database Access Kit will allow you to read, write, and manipulate data stored in database management systems like Oracle, DB2, SQLServer, and others from within Mathematica. Currently in beta testing, Database Access Kit works with any database for which ODBC drivers are available. If you would like to be a beta tester for this product, send email to dbkit-beta@wolfram.com.

Upcoming Event: 1999 Mathematica Developer Conference

Don't miss this opportunity to learn more about developing Mathematica-related tools, products, courseware, and books. The 1999 Mathematica Developer Conference features many informative, practical sessions--several focusing on new features in Mathematica 4 to help you build better applications. The conference will be held October 21-23, and early-bird discounts are available. More details...

New Products

• Mathematica Link for Excel
  Exchange data between spreadsheets and Mathematica notebooks seamlessly, perform sophisticated data analysis, and visualize data and equations in new and insightful ways that are not possible with Excel alone. Compatible with Mathematica 4, Mathematica Link for Excel features an easy-to-use toolbar with a function wizard, a kernel dialog, and link help. More info...

• Global Optimization 2.0
  Solve nonlinear optimization problems with the Global Optimization suite of tools. Supported by Loehle Enterprises, this application package also allows you to find the roots or zeros of a nonanalytic function. More info...

• Mathematica Link for LabVIEW
  Control a LabVIEW application (Virtual Instrument or VI) from within a Mathematica notebook, or call the Mathematica kernel from within a LabVIEW VI. More info...

New Books

• The Graphica Series
  Featuring the Mathematica-inspired artwork of Michael Trott and Igor Bakshee, Graphica 1 and 2 are already creating quite a stir in the art and design community. Look for Graphica at your local bookstore and online.

• The Student's Introduction to Mathematica: A Handbook for Precalculus, Calculus, and Linear Algebra, Bruce F. Torrence and Eve A. Torrence.

• Modelling Financial Derivatives with Mathematica, William Shaw.

These books and hundreds of others are available at the Mathematica Bookstore.

Mathematica Tips

More tips, tutorials, and demos are available to you anytime online and in our extraordinarily complete Help Browser.

1. Importing and Exporting Tables of Data in Mathematica 4

In Mathematica 4, import and export of tables of data is very easy. For example, given a random data set, you can export it to a file, then import it back into Mathematica:

dat = Table[Random[], {20}, {20}];
Export["test.dat", dat, "Table"]
Import["test.dat", "Table"]

Import and Export support many other formats, including graphics formats such as "GIF" and "JPEG", sound formats like "AU" and "WAV", data formats like "HDF", and many others. Consult the "additional information" section of the Help Browser for more information.

2. New in Version 4: Option Inspector Documentation

For help with a particular front end option, point the Help Browser to Other Information | Front End Options. The hierarchy is the same as in the Option Inspector, or use the Lookup field to jump right to the option you want.

3. New in Version 4: Spell Checking

To spell check your notebook, go to the Edit menu and choose the "Check Spelling..." menu item. This convenient feature is based on a 100,000-word dictionary including a customized list of 25,000 technical terms. For more information, see the Help Browser.