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An Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language
The Wolfram Language represents a major advance in programming languages that makes leading-edge computation accessible to everyone. Unique in its approach of building in vast knowledge and automation, the Wolfram Language scales from a single line of easy-to-understand interactive code to million-line production systems. This book provides an elementary introduction to the Wolfram Language and modern computational thinking. It assumes no prior knowledge of programming, and is suitable for both technical and non-technical college and high-school students, as well as anyone with an interest in the latest technology and its practical application.
324 pages, Paperback
First published December 11, 2015
27 people are currently reading
294 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Wolfram
45 books449 followersStephen Wolfram is the founder & CEO of Wolfram Research, creator of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha & Wolfram Language, author of A New Kind of Science and other books, and the originator of Wolfram Physics Project.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 15, 2016
Reading through this book, three characteristics of the Wolfram programming language are very clear. The first is that it has enormous breadth of capabilities, it can of course do the mathematics that Mathematica is famous for. It can also perform an enormous amount of complex graphics, only part of which is mathematical in nature and it has significant audio capabilities.
The second is that is is extremely succinct, the commands demonstrated in this book all easily fit on a single line. While some of them are a bit cryptic due to the brevity and the complexity of the objects they are referencing, they are surprisingly easy to understand. Nothing like the old days of command line programming.
The third characteristic is the breadth and power of the databases that can be accessed using the Wolfram language. Some of the examples in the book reference a database of information about the planets of our solar system and show you some of the ability to derive and develop processed and displayed datasets.
Graphic artists use specialized programs to aid them in their creations, social scientists use statistical packages, economists and financial planners use specialized programs and scientists use many different types of programs to process and analyze their data. In this book you see a convergence, where the Wolfram language has the ability to support all of them.
The blurb on the back claims that no previous programming experience is necessary and I have to concur with that, with a little bit of explanation, the example programs are easy to understand. The only point of difficulty is an understanding of the objects the program is acting on. For example, the reader needs to understand what an array is before the code to operate on it can be understood.
A set of exercises for the reader to program are included at the end of the chapters and solutions are given in a section at the end. All of the material in the book is available online at wolfr.am/eiwl-c.
This book was made available for free for review purposes
The second is that is is extremely succinct, the commands demonstrated in this book all easily fit on a single line. While some of them are a bit cryptic due to the brevity and the complexity of the objects they are referencing, they are surprisingly easy to understand. Nothing like the old days of command line programming.
The third characteristic is the breadth and power of the databases that can be accessed using the Wolfram language. Some of the examples in the book reference a database of information about the planets of our solar system and show you some of the ability to derive and develop processed and displayed datasets.
Graphic artists use specialized programs to aid them in their creations, social scientists use statistical packages, economists and financial planners use specialized programs and scientists use many different types of programs to process and analyze their data. In this book you see a convergence, where the Wolfram language has the ability to support all of them.
The blurb on the back claims that no previous programming experience is necessary and I have to concur with that, with a little bit of explanation, the example programs are easy to understand. The only point of difficulty is an understanding of the objects the program is acting on. For example, the reader needs to understand what an array is before the code to operate on it can be understood.
A set of exercises for the reader to program are included at the end of the chapters and solutions are given in a section at the end. All of the material in the book is available online at wolfr.am/eiwl-c.
This book was made available for free for review purposes
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October 3, 2024Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language
A good starting point.
3rd edition, 2023, 376 pages. Table of contents here: https://www.wolfram.com/books/profile...
Second edition, 2017, 340 pages, the full book is online here: https://www.wolfram.com/language/elem...
For the rest of the current crop of Wolfram books, see
https://www.wolfram.com/books/search.... : there's a "browse topics" tab on the left.
Only some of the syntax, and only some of the features, work in the free online Wolfram Alpha: https://www.wolframalpha.com/
Such as, anything that takes more than one line, or requires naming a variable, you'll need Mathematica: https://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/p...
A good starting point.
3rd edition, 2023, 376 pages. Table of contents here: https://www.wolfram.com/books/profile...
Second edition, 2017, 340 pages, the full book is online here: https://www.wolfram.com/language/elem...
For the rest of the current crop of Wolfram books, see
https://www.wolfram.com/books/search.... : there's a "browse topics" tab on the left.
Only some of the syntax, and only some of the features, work in the free online Wolfram Alpha: https://www.wolframalpha.com/
Such as, anything that takes more than one line, or requires naming a variable, you'll need Mathematica: https://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/p...
March 10, 2018
"An Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language" is really good, surprisingly good given that it's a programming language tutorial. It's probably the best programming language tutorial I've ever read. I thought a bit about why this is, and the answer that came to me is that it's not only a tutorial, it's a demo.
This book is a demo in print form, with everything composed, contained, and restrained. The graphic design of the book, the spacing, style, and typography, is great. Each chapter is focused and concise. All of the code samples are small, rarely more than one line, intended to be understood as one part, but still accomplish enough to be worth presenting. The text is equally brief. Each chapter starts with one or two very short paragraphs, then quickly turns into one or sometimes two sentences, followed by a caption for a code example, and then then example. The only serious blocks of text are the introduction and conclusion, which themselves are only couple of small, large-print pages. Each chapter ends with a Q&A section, and some bullet point notes, each rarely going over five items.
(There are also exercises after each chapter. In my typical fashion, not only didn't I do them, I didn't even read them.)
The content itself is also very demo-like. Covering with the early sections covering text, graphics, geography, image processing, charts, colors, graphs, knowledge content, music, and some machine learning, it shows the range of the interface before getting into the nuts and bolts of programming. A lot of the examples use color swatches, columns, frames, and other formatting fun to make things look cool even when the example doesn't necessarily require it. You really get an idea of the breadth of what's on offer early. It's also a great way to demonstrate the functional character of the language, with variables not being required until over halfway through.
Another way it's like a demo is that it's not really about showing you how to do anything in particular in depth. I like this. I think sometimes in computing there is a tendency to sacrifice things being fun to pretend to be useful. This tutorial just shows a lot of raw capability, and what you do with it is up to you.
One other way the code is like a demo is that the quality of the code, in terms of being communicative, is very high. Nothing here was done thoughtlessly or in a hurry.
Altogether, this style meets its goal of being minimal: small examples, small sentences, small chapters, small Q&A sections, small tech notes, small introductions and conclusions. The book is not too big. Not too big is as good as a Wolfram book is going to do, as the old Mathematica books were big enough that you'd destroy your feet if you dropped it. Seriously, you'd never walk again. This book is comfortable to hold and stops before it has worn out its welcome.
The Wolfram Language we see here is kind of like Apple and kind of like Pepsi. It's like Apple in that it is intended as a cohesively designed experience. It's like Pepsi in that a small sip is pretty sweet and likely to win a taste test. What's it like to drink a whole can or a whole case or write a big program or service a large customer base? That's not covered here but that's ok. It's good to enjoy a sip every now and again. (In my experience, it also lends itself to large programs but things can go very wrong when the programmer isn't thinking about other readers and maintainers.)
In any case, if you find yourself learning the Wolfram Language, start here. This is the best text tutorial you will find.
This book is a demo in print form, with everything composed, contained, and restrained. The graphic design of the book, the spacing, style, and typography, is great. Each chapter is focused and concise. All of the code samples are small, rarely more than one line, intended to be understood as one part, but still accomplish enough to be worth presenting. The text is equally brief. Each chapter starts with one or two very short paragraphs, then quickly turns into one or sometimes two sentences, followed by a caption for a code example, and then then example. The only serious blocks of text are the introduction and conclusion, which themselves are only couple of small, large-print pages. Each chapter ends with a Q&A section, and some bullet point notes, each rarely going over five items.
(There are also exercises after each chapter. In my typical fashion, not only didn't I do them, I didn't even read them.)
The content itself is also very demo-like. Covering with the early sections covering text, graphics, geography, image processing, charts, colors, graphs, knowledge content, music, and some machine learning, it shows the range of the interface before getting into the nuts and bolts of programming. A lot of the examples use color swatches, columns, frames, and other formatting fun to make things look cool even when the example doesn't necessarily require it. You really get an idea of the breadth of what's on offer early. It's also a great way to demonstrate the functional character of the language, with variables not being required until over halfway through.
Another way it's like a demo is that it's not really about showing you how to do anything in particular in depth. I like this. I think sometimes in computing there is a tendency to sacrifice things being fun to pretend to be useful. This tutorial just shows a lot of raw capability, and what you do with it is up to you.
One other way the code is like a demo is that the quality of the code, in terms of being communicative, is very high. Nothing here was done thoughtlessly or in a hurry.
Altogether, this style meets its goal of being minimal: small examples, small sentences, small chapters, small Q&A sections, small tech notes, small introductions and conclusions. The book is not too big. Not too big is as good as a Wolfram book is going to do, as the old Mathematica books were big enough that you'd destroy your feet if you dropped it. Seriously, you'd never walk again. This book is comfortable to hold and stops before it has worn out its welcome.
The Wolfram Language we see here is kind of like Apple and kind of like Pepsi. It's like Apple in that it is intended as a cohesively designed experience. It's like Pepsi in that a small sip is pretty sweet and likely to win a taste test. What's it like to drink a whole can or a whole case or write a big program or service a large customer base? That's not covered here but that's ok. It's good to enjoy a sip every now and again. (In my experience, it also lends itself to large programs but things can go very wrong when the programmer isn't thinking about other readers and maintainers.)
In any case, if you find yourself learning the Wolfram Language, start here. This is the best text tutorial you will find.
November 1, 2016
Limited use for WolfranAlpha so far.
I bought the book in hopes it would be useful for using WolframAlpha. I started working my way through the examples and found that many would not work. To be fair, the book is said to be for Mathmatica and I took a chance. The book is well written and the three stars pertains more to it not meeting my purpose than the book itself so take that with a grain of salt.
It would be nice if a reference like this were written for the subset of the language useable with WolframAlpha.
I bought the book in hopes it would be useful for using WolframAlpha. I started working my way through the examples and found that many would not work. To be fair, the book is said to be for Mathmatica and I took a chance. The book is well written and the three stars pertains more to it not meeting my purpose than the book itself so take that with a grain of salt.
It would be nice if a reference like this were written for the subset of the language useable with WolframAlpha.
February 22, 2023
Good set of exercises, especially in the latter half. Plus, it comes with free online website where you can find copy-pastable model solutions (and bonus questions!) Very few typos or errors.
However, the author is given to self-aggrandisement. It's usually bit ticklish to see him at it, but it can sometimes put one off...
However, the author is given to self-aggrandisement. It's usually bit ticklish to see him at it, but it can sometimes put one off...
May 12, 2018
A good introduction to a really powerful high-level language. A great companion to the free programming lab on the Wolfram website. If anyone one is interested in this book I highly recommend checking it out on the Wolfram site and the complete book is available there.
November 7, 2021
A very concise and useful introduction to the Wolfram language
The best introduction of the Wolfram language. The book gives all the elementary information for starting to program in Mathematica. You should read it.
The best introduction of the Wolfram language. The book gives all the elementary information for starting to program in Mathematica. You should read it.
August 5, 2024
Concise considering the breadth of possible content. It does a really good job of showing just how powerful the language is for computational thinking.
Really good first introduction to the language, but note they’ve made the contents free in notebook / class form online too!
Really good first introduction to the language, but note they’ve made the contents free in notebook / class form online too!
April 12, 2025
well organized introduction to mathematicaq
With interesting problem sets, this gives the book a punch that is valuable for self-teaching. By the designer and founder of the Mathematica language
With interesting problem sets, this gives the book a punch that is valuable for self-teaching. By the designer and founder of the Mathematica language
March 1, 2018
Great book for Wolfram Language.
May 5, 2020
The most enjoyable introductory book to a programming language I've read. Filled with examples set to expand conceptions of the ways to encode algorithms and ideas.
September 4, 2016
The title of the book says it all. It is an introduction to Wolfram Language, everything anyone using their products would want to understand. I am using Mathematica myself and it was a discovery after discovery trying exercises in this book. Some programming experience will help you a lot in reading this book so you wouldn't have to read every explanation given at the beginning of every line of code. I highly recommend you to use the latest version of Mathematica in order to enjoy the full capabilities depicted in the book. I have to admit, after reading this book I realize that Wolfram Language is a very powerful Programming Language and is incomparable to those of previous generation.
August 27, 2016
This is an up to date concise introduction to Mathematica written by the creator of Mathematica. If you don't want to learn from the thousands of pages of Mathematica documentation, it is a good choice to start with this book.
July 20, 2017
Good book to start learning mathematica
August 25, 2017
It is easy to learn Wolfram language.
It takes more than 7 years to become an expert in any language.
It takes more than 7 years to become an expert in any language.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews