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I'm known among my people to be the Mathematica advocate. They spend hours in Origin and use hand calculators when there's a computer at their disposal, yet they never feel like Mathematica is worth learning since their attempt "works". That it takes me 10 minutes to change a value in the initial data and have the complete re-evaluation up to ready-to-print plots in a matter of another 10, while they have to start over losing a day or two.

Unfortunately, all the examples I consider to be nice in my Mathematica folder are either long and convoluted programs, or short but not very impressive on first sight.

Because of this, I was wondering whether a "post convincing short programs in favor of Mathematica" question is suitable for the page. What do you guys say?

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    Origin possess spreadsheet capability which can be advantageous. Commented Jan 18, 2012 at 4:20
  • The mathematica one liner competition entries are quite interesting. link Commented Jan 18, 2012 at 5:41
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    sort=(#//.{a___,b_,c_,d___}/;b>c->{a,c,b,d})&; Bubble sort in 47 characters :) Commented Jan 18, 2012 at 10:02
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    Maybe if this site gets an associated blog. Until then... Commented Jan 18, 2012 at 12:45
  • To digress is it possible to link Origin to Mma? I thought I remembered seeing such a link once. Commented Jan 19, 2012 at 11:32
  • @Mike originlab.com/www/helponline/Origin/en/Category/… Commented Jan 30, 2012 at 22:37

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No, I don't think that's appropriate. That sort of question is not really a question at all, because it's not something that can be answered. Whatever responses are posted, there's no objective basis to evaluate them, so the votes will be based on whatever people happen to like the best. It becomes a popularity contest rather than a source of information. Besides that, you have to consider the guidelines for subjective questions, and my reading is that making a list of impressive short Mathematica programs fails on all six counts. (This may be debatable)

Of course, a list like that does have value, and it would probably fit in fine on a more traditional forum or perhaps a mailing list. But it's not the kind of thing that the Stack Exchange model is meant for.

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