This Hacker News thread discusses the announcement of Wolfram Compute Services. The reaction is twofold: some longtime users see the cloud computing feature as long overdue, while the broader conversation critiques the Wolfram Language (Mathematica) ecosystem. Commenters praise the language's immense power for research and prototyping, citing its vast, integrated library ("spaceship included"). However, this praise is matched by strong criticism of its proprietary nature and cost, which are seen as the primary barriers to wider adoption and community building. The language itself is criticized for design flaws in scoping and error handling, and the software for sluggish performance. Comparisons are made to open-source alternatives like Python and Sage Math, which are considered more accessible but less integrated.
Hacker News Discusses Wolfram's New Cloud Service and its Ecosystem
A Powerful but Inaccessible Tool: Commenters describe Wolfram Language as an incredibly high-value tool for exploration and complex tasks, but its proprietary nature and cost (e.g., $195/year for a personal license) prevent widespread use and community formation. It remains a niche product, primarily for academia.
Cloud Computing is "Finally" Here: The announcement of a cloud service is met with approval from veteran users who have wanted the ability to run computations remotely on more powerful hardware for years.
Language Design Criticized: Several users find the language itself to be poorly designed. Criticisms include clumsy variable scoping, unconventional control flow (e.g., If[] being a function), and frustrating error handling that can lead to pages of useless output.
Poor Performance and Usability: The Mathematica software is criticized for being sluggish, with slow startup times and poor GUI performance. Its notebook format is also considered difficult to use with version control systems like Git.
Open-Source Alternatives Lack Integration: While open-source options like Sage Math exist, they are described as poorly integrated collections of tools, lacking the cohesive power of Mathematica. Python is seen as a viable alternative but with a lower ceiling for certain power users.
Desire for an Open-Source Clone: The high cost and proprietary lock-in have created a strong demand for an open-source version of Mathematica. The thread mentions at least one attempt to build a clone in Rust (Woxi) and an existing project, Mathics.org.