{"slug": "mathematica", "name": "Mathematica", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "Wolfram's commercial technical computing system for symbolic math, numerics, visualization and notebooks.", "recommenders": 12, "commenters": 21, "warners": 2, "score": 10.948, "rising": 5.36, "first": "2025-11-08", "latest": "2026-10-13", "why": "Loved for symbolic computation in math, physics and engineering work and for interactive notebooks and visualizations, with several users happy to pay for its polish.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 12, "neutral": 7, "compare": 0, "warn": 2}, "spark": [1, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 4, 1, 2], "listed": true, "loved": ["Technical computation", "Notebooks & visuals"], "caveat": "Proprietary", "short_quote": "I love to play in Mathematica. It is function rich and the documentation is amazing.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/", "pricing": "paid", "aliases": ["Mathematica"], "verdict": [{"text": "Loved for symbolic computation in math, physics and engineering work", "cites": [{"id": 791651664, "item_id": 49478229, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49478229", "by": "fasterik", "date": "2026-08-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "they're indispensable to the working mathematician, physicist, or engineer", "excerpt": "That's why we use different tools when teaching/learning something vs. doing real work. Another example is computer algebra systems like Mathematica. It would be self-sabotage to use them on your calculus homework, but they're indispensable to the working mathematician, physicist, or engineer, whose time is wasted doing routine calculations by hand.", "context": "", "use_case": "computer algebra for professional work", "switched_from": "", "story": "Decompiling a Nintendo 64 game in 84 days"}, {"id": 788470352, "item_id": 49279397, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49279397", "by": "webslinger1", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used Mathematica for many years for getting equations right.", "excerpt": "I used Mathematica for many years for getting equations right. If you're looking for new ideas I thought being able to make approximations (other than series approximations) would have been a great addition. Examples include SVEA, plane-wave approximation, RWA, paraxial approximation, binomial approximation, etc.", "context": "", "use_case": "working out equations", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Woxi - Open-source Mathematica / Wolfram Language reimplementation"}, {"id": 795953264, "item_id": 49747079, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49747079", "by": "mlh496", "date": "2026-09-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Mathematica now has an MCP which I use regularly from Claude Code. It's nice not having to write the lengthy Mathematica expressions by hand.", "excerpt": "I think Mathematica will survive because the alternative is for AIs to write the code to do a computation or use an open-source library. And there are many calculations for which there simply isn't an open-source tool for evaluating. But I wouldn't be surprised to see Mathematica being used primarily as an AI plugin in the coming years. Mathematica now has an MCP which I use regularly from Claude Code. It's nice not ", "context": "", "use_case": "computation via AI plugin", "switched_from": "", "story": "Andr\u00e9 Weil and the Hodge Conjecture"}]}, {"text": " and for interactive notebooks and visualizations", "cites": [{"id": 800016816, "item_id": 50001051, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50001051", "by": "6thbit", "date": "2026-10-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This brings Mathematica\u2019s Manipulate elements to mind. I love those", "excerpt": "This brings Mathematica\u2019s Manipulate elements to mind. I love those, once you determine the variables and make it interactive concepts come alive. At least seems a fist step out of the serial interface of chats.", "context": "", "use_case": "interactive concept exploration", "switched_from": "", "story": "GPT\u20116 and Intelligent UI for everyone"}, {"id": 788494945, "item_id": 49280934, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49280934", "by": "dataminded", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "A lot of what makes Mathematica notebooks valuable is that they're readable.", "excerpt": "I did go back and play with it to confirm I felt as strongly as I do. I used a combination of my inputs and the notebooks available here to see how much it mattered (https://www.wolfram-media.com/products/introduction-to-calculus/) ASCII entry is great if you already know exactly what you're doing. There's no built-in tooling to help you convert your intent to ASCII. You have to be confident that your entry accuratel", "context": "", "use_case": "math notebooks", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Woxi - Open-source Mathematica / Wolfram Language reimplementation"}, {"id": 777049680, "item_id": 48565605, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48565605", "by": "raegis", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it was very, very easy to write in Mathematica with cool graphics.", "excerpt": "I used Mathematica on a NeXT computer back in 1991. It was a beautiful machine to work on. I did a student project where I simulated the flow of the boundary of a plane region over time (like how the shape of a drop of oil in water changes over time) and it was very, very easy to write in Mathematica with cool graphics.", "context": "used it in 1991 on NeXT", "use_case": "student simulation project", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wolfram Language and Mathematica Version 15, AI Assistant, Symbolic Music, More"}]}, {"text": ", with several users happy to pay for its polish.", "cites": [{"id": 801118625, "item_id": 50069914, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50069914", "by": "nz", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The only software that I am happy to pay for is: Mathematica", "excerpt": "To be fair, Open Source has always been a threat to proprietary software. To be concrete, and I don't care what anyone else says, I will always prefer Krita to PhotoShop (because it is free, open, _and_ better, IMHO). LLMs just make it possible to get a minimum-viable-clone very quickly (whether it is as good as a traditional open-source re-implementation, is a different matter). The only software that I am happy to ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 788438032, "item_id": 49277377, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49277377", "by": "adalacelove", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Happy paying Mathematica customer here.", "excerpt": "Happy paying Mathematica customer here. I think this is great. A lot of people want to have a free alternative. For me, the real value of this is the creation of a community and setting the foundation for something better than Mathematica. I'm on the side of those that think that programming languages are a tool of thought and Wolfram lang can be extremely expressive. I love non-mainstream but useful languages.", "context": "paying customer", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Woxi - Open-source Mathematica / Wolfram Language reimplementation"}, {"id": 755145696, "item_id": 47196606, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47196606", "by": "the__alchemist", "date": "2026-02-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Mathematica and have a personal sub.", "excerpt": "I love Rust for mathematical and scientific tasks (I am building the structural bio crate infrastructure), and I love Mathematica and have a personal sub. I should be the audience, but... What makes Mathematica great, IMO, is the polish and overall experience created by consistent work with applications in mind over decades. So, I look at this project with skepticism regarding its utility.", "context": "building structural bio crate infrastructure", "use_case": "scientific computing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Woxi: Wolfram Mathematica Reimplementation in Rust"}]}, {"text": " The most common caveat is that it is proprietary", "cites": [{"id": 797531025, "item_id": 49845689, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49845689", "by": "tombert", "date": "2026-09-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Both Apple Numbers and Mathematica still depend on a proprietary software package from a for-profit company", "excerpt": "Both Apple Numbers and Mathematica still depend on a proprietary software package from a for-profit company though. I think the only way we can actually solve the problem is to get a FOSS product up to snuff with Excel. I use Julia if I need really elaborate number crunching, but I don\u2019t view it as a substitute for Excel; the interactivity of spreadsheets is really useful, especially when you\u2019re actively developing s", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Dutch governments builds alternative for Microsoft based on NixOS"}, {"id": 754202352, "item_id": 47137647, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47137647", "by": "stared", "date": "2026-02-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used it deeply 10-15 years ago, before I migrated to Python/Jupyter Notebook ecosystem", "excerpt": "Either I miss something, or is it yet another marketing approach by Stephen Wolfram? The post talks about \"foundation tool\", yet it offers an MCP to a proprietary app (out of miriads of such). Sure, as any other tech, Mathematica may have its edges (I used it deeply 10-15 years ago, before I migrated to Python/Jupyter Notebook ecosystem). But in the grand scheme of things, it is yet another tech, and one that is losi", "context": "", "use_case": "computational work", "switched_from": "", "story": "Making Wolfram Tech Available as a Foundation Tool for LLM Systems"}]}, {"text": ", and some commenters have moved to Python, SymPy or SageMath instead.", "cites": [{"id": 777042369, "item_id": 48565148, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48565148", "by": "markgall", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Everything I used to do in Mathematica I now do in sage", "excerpt": "Probably the most general-purpose one is SageMath, which is open-source and basically Python with a ton of sophisticated math stuff built into it. Everything I used to do in Mathematica I now do in sage, and I don't think I'm the only one. Probably field-dependent though. Of course there is a whole constellation of more specialized things in certain fields, that has come a long way in the last 15 years. So people nee", "context": "", "use_case": "math", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wolfram Language and Mathematica Version 15, AI Assistant, Symbolic Music, More"}, {"id": 776464225, "item_id": 48529014, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48529014", "by": "targafarian", "date": "2026-06-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Mathematica and Matlab are terrible for a lot of reasons.", "excerpt": "I forget who said it, but Python isn't the best at anything but it's decent to good at nearly everything, and that's why it's become so popular. I do a lot of what I need symbolically in SymPy for dynamics analysis. Past that, I can't speak for it. At University I used Mathematica, but I just don't need all it can do at this point, so once again Python has proven to be \"good enough.\" Matlab will be a similar story (e", "context": "", "use_case": "symbolic math", "switched_from": "", "story": "Python 3.14 garbage collection rigamarole"}, {"id": 754202352, "item_id": 47137647, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47137647", "by": "stared", "date": "2026-02-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used it deeply 10-15 years ago, before I migrated to Python/Jupyter Notebook ecosystem", "excerpt": "Either I miss something, or is it yet another marketing approach by Stephen Wolfram? The post talks about \"foundation tool\", yet it offers an MCP to a proprietary app (out of miriads of such). Sure, as any other tech, Mathematica may have its edges (I used it deeply 10-15 years ago, before I migrated to Python/Jupyter Notebook ecosystem). But in the grand scheme of things, it is yet another tech, and one that is losi", "context": "", "use_case": "computational work", "switched_from": "", "story": "Making Wolfram Tech Available as a Foundation Tool for LLM Systems"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Technical computation", "summary": "Commenters call it indispensable for routine calculations in math, physics and engineering.", "quotes": [{"id": 791651664, "item_id": 49478229, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49478229", "by": "fasterik", "date": "2026-08-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "they're indispensable to the working mathematician, physicist, or engineer", "excerpt": "That's why we use different tools when teaching/learning something vs. doing real work. Another example is computer algebra systems like Mathematica. It would be self-sabotage to use them on your calculus homework, but they're indispensable to the working mathematician, physicist, or engineer, whose time is wasted doing routine calculations by hand.", "context": "", "use_case": "computer algebra for professional work", "switched_from": "", "story": "Decompiling a Nintendo 64 game in 84 days"}, {"id": 788470352, "item_id": 49279397, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49279397", "by": "webslinger1", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used Mathematica for many years for getting equations right.", "excerpt": "I used Mathematica for many years for getting equations right. If you're looking for new ideas I thought being able to make approximations (other than series approximations) would have been a great addition. Examples include SVEA, plane-wave approximation, RWA, paraxial approximation, binomial approximation, etc.", "context": "", "use_case": "working out equations", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Woxi - Open-source Mathematica / Wolfram Language reimplementation"}, {"id": 795953264, "item_id": 49747079, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49747079", "by": "mlh496", "date": "2026-09-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Mathematica now has an MCP which I use regularly from Claude Code. It's nice not having to write the lengthy Mathematica expressions by hand.", "excerpt": "I think Mathematica will survive because the alternative is for AIs to write the code to do a computation or use an open-source library. And there are many calculations for which there simply isn't an open-source tool for evaluating. But I wouldn't be surprised to see Mathematica being used primarily as an AI plugin in the coming years. Mathematica now has an MCP which I use regularly from Claude Code. It's nice not ", "context": "", "use_case": "computation via AI plugin", "switched_from": "", "story": "Andr\u00e9 Weil and the Hodge Conjecture"}]}, {"label": "Notebooks & visuals", "summary": "Interactive Manipulate elements, readable notebooks and easy graphics are praised.", "quotes": [{"id": 800016816, "item_id": 50001051, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50001051", "by": "6thbit", "date": "2026-10-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This brings Mathematica\u2019s Manipulate elements to mind. I love those", "excerpt": "This brings Mathematica\u2019s Manipulate elements to mind. I love those, once you determine the variables and make it interactive concepts come alive. At least seems a fist step out of the serial interface of chats.", "context": "", "use_case": "interactive concept exploration", "switched_from": "", "story": "GPT\u20116 and Intelligent UI for everyone"}, {"id": 788494945, "item_id": 49280934, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49280934", "by": "dataminded", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "A lot of what makes Mathematica notebooks valuable is that they're readable.", "excerpt": "I did go back and play with it to confirm I felt as strongly as I do. I used a combination of my inputs and the notebooks available here to see how much it mattered (https://www.wolfram-media.com/products/introduction-to-calculus/) ASCII entry is great if you already know exactly what you're doing. There's no built-in tooling to help you convert your intent to ASCII. You have to be confident that your entry accuratel", "context": "", "use_case": "math notebooks", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Woxi - Open-source Mathematica / Wolfram Language reimplementation"}, {"id": 777049680, "item_id": 48565605, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48565605", "by": "raegis", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it was very, very easy to write in Mathematica with cool graphics.", "excerpt": "I used Mathematica on a NeXT computer back in 1991. It was a beautiful machine to work on. I did a student project where I simulated the flow of the boundary of a plane region over time (like how the shape of a drop of oil in water changes over time) and it was very, very easy to write in Mathematica with cool graphics.", "context": "used it in 1991 on NeXT", "use_case": "student simulation project", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wolfram Language and Mathematica Version 15, AI Assistant, Symbolic Music, More"}]}, {"label": "Worth paying for", "summary": "Several users say they happily pay for it and value its polish.", "quotes": [{"id": 801118625, "item_id": 50069914, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50069914", "by": "nz", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The only software that I am happy to pay for is: Mathematica", "excerpt": "To be fair, Open Source has always been a threat to proprietary software. To be concrete, and I don't care what anyone else says, I will always prefer Krita to PhotoShop (because it is free, open, _and_ better, IMHO). LLMs just make it possible to get a minimum-viable-clone very quickly (whether it is as good as a traditional open-source re-implementation, is a different matter). The only software that I am happy to ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 788438032, "item_id": 49277377, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49277377", "by": "adalacelove", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Happy paying Mathematica customer here.", "excerpt": "Happy paying Mathematica customer here. I think this is great. A lot of people want to have a free alternative. For me, the real value of this is the creation of a community and setting the foundation for something better than Mathematica. I'm on the side of those that think that programming languages are a tool of thought and Wolfram lang can be extremely expressive. I love non-mainstream but useful languages.", "context": "paying customer", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Woxi - Open-source Mathematica / Wolfram Language reimplementation"}, {"id": 755145696, "item_id": 47196606, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47196606", "by": "the__alchemist", "date": "2026-02-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Mathematica and have a personal sub.", "excerpt": "I love Rust for mathematical and scientific tasks (I am building the structural bio crate infrastructure), and I love Mathematica and have a personal sub. I should be the audience, but... What makes Mathematica great, IMO, is the polish and overall experience created by consistent work with applications in mind over decades. So, I look at this project with skepticism regarding its utility.", "context": "building structural bio crate infrastructure", "use_case": "scientific computing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Woxi: Wolfram Mathematica Reimplementation in Rust"}]}, {"label": "Functions & docs", "summary": "Users describe it as function rich, expressive and well documented.", "quotes": [{"id": 733792400, "item_id": 45862025, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45862025", "by": "eggy", "date": "2025-11-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love to play in Mathematica. It is function rich and the documentation is amazing.", "excerpt": "I've heard this one before. I still use Mathematica (Home edition). It has curated data and more than just a notebook interface, which it pretty much invented. I use Julia with Pluto, SMath Studio, Frink, and some others for Maths toolbox. I love to play in Mathematica. It is function rich and the documentation is amazing. I usually prototype/research in it. But then again, I drop to BQN/APL/J for some math fun.", "context": "uses Home edition", "use_case": "math prototyping and research", "switched_from": "", "story": "I replaced Mathematica with this free and open-source alternative (SageMath)"}, {"id": 788438032, "item_id": 49277377, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49277377", "by": "adalacelove", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Happy paying Mathematica customer here.", "excerpt": "Happy paying Mathematica customer here. I think this is great. A lot of people want to have a free alternative. For me, the real value of this is the creation of a community and setting the foundation for something better than Mathematica. I'm on the side of those that think that programming languages are a tool of thought and Wolfram lang can be extremely expressive. I love non-mainstream but useful languages.", "context": "paying customer", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Woxi - Open-source Mathematica / Wolfram Language reimplementation"}]}, {"label": "Breadth", "summary": "Non-mathematicians use it for GIS, visualizations and machine learning.", "quotes": [{"id": 738753792, "item_id": 46172112, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46172112", "by": "hebejebelus", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm a non-mathematician and I used it for lots of novel stuff - GIS, visualisations of all kinds, machine learning.", "excerpt": "I'm a non-mathematician and I used it for lots of novel stuff - GIS, visualisations of all kinds, machine learning. The Wolfram Community staff picks is a great introduction into the varied things you can do: https://community.wolfram.com/content?curTag=staff%20picks", "context": "non-mathematician", "use_case": "GIS, visualisation, machine learning", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wolfram Compute Services"}, {"id": 733792400, "item_id": 45862025, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45862025", "by": "eggy", "date": "2025-11-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love to play in Mathematica. It is function rich and the documentation is amazing.", "excerpt": "I've heard this one before. I still use Mathematica (Home edition). It has curated data and more than just a notebook interface, which it pretty much invented. I use Julia with Pluto, SMath Studio, Frink, and some others for Maths toolbox. I love to play in Mathematica. It is function rich and the documentation is amazing. I usually prototype/research in it. But then again, I drop to BQN/APL/J for some math fun.", "context": "uses Home edition", "use_case": "math prototyping and research", "switched_from": "", "story": "I replaced Mathematica with this free and open-source alternative (SageMath)"}]}, {"label": "AI integration", "summary": "One user regularly calls it from Claude Code through its MCP.", "quotes": [{"id": 795953264, "item_id": 49747079, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49747079", "by": "mlh496", "date": "2026-09-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Mathematica now has an MCP which I use regularly from Claude Code. It's nice not having to write the lengthy Mathematica expressions by hand.", "excerpt": "I think Mathematica will survive because the alternative is for AIs to write the code to do a computation or use an open-source library. And there are many calculations for which there simply isn't an open-source tool for evaluating. But I wouldn't be surprised to see Mathematica being used primarily as an AI plugin in the coming years. Mathematica now has an MCP which I use regularly from Claude Code. It's nice not ", "context": "", "use_case": "computation via AI plugin", "switched_from": "", "story": "Andr\u00e9 Weil and the Hodge Conjecture"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Proprietary", "summary": "Some commenters object that it depends on proprietary software from a for-profit company.", "quotes": [{"id": 797531025, "item_id": 49845689, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49845689", "by": "tombert", "date": "2026-09-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Both Apple Numbers and Mathematica still depend on a proprietary software package from a for-profit company", "excerpt": "Both Apple Numbers and Mathematica still depend on a proprietary software package from a for-profit company though. I think the only way we can actually solve the problem is to get a FOSS product up to snuff with Excel. I use Julia if I need really elaborate number crunching, but I don\u2019t view it as a substitute for Excel; the interactivity of spreadsheets is really useful, especially when you\u2019re actively developing s", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Dutch governments builds alternative for Microsoft based on NixOS"}, {"id": 754202352, "item_id": 47137647, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47137647", "by": "stared", "date": "2026-02-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used it deeply 10-15 years ago, before I migrated to Python/Jupyter Notebook ecosystem", "excerpt": "Either I miss something, or is it yet another marketing approach by Stephen Wolfram? The post talks about \"foundation tool\", yet it offers an MCP to a proprietary app (out of miriads of such). Sure, as any other tech, Mathematica may have its edges (I used it deeply 10-15 years ago, before I migrated to Python/Jupyter Notebook ecosystem). But in the grand scheme of things, it is yet another tech, and one that is losi", "context": "", "use_case": "computational work", "switched_from": "", "story": "Making Wolfram Tech Available as a Foundation Tool for LLM Systems"}]}, {"label": "Open alternatives", "summary": "Some users have switched to SageMath, SymPy or Python/Jupyter.", "quotes": [{"id": 777042369, "item_id": 48565148, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48565148", "by": "markgall", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Everything I used to do in Mathematica I now do in sage", "excerpt": "Probably the most general-purpose one is SageMath, which is open-source and basically Python with a ton of sophisticated math stuff built into it. Everything I used to do in Mathematica I now do in sage, and I don't think I'm the only one. Probably field-dependent though. Of course there is a whole constellation of more specialized things in certain fields, that has come a long way in the last 15 years. So people nee", "context": "", "use_case": "math", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wolfram Language and Mathematica Version 15, AI Assistant, Symbolic Music, More"}, {"id": 776464225, "item_id": 48529014, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48529014", "by": "targafarian", "date": "2026-06-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Mathematica and Matlab are terrible for a lot of reasons.", "excerpt": "I forget who said it, but Python isn't the best at anything but it's decent to good at nearly everything, and that's why it's become so popular. I do a lot of what I need symbolically in SymPy for dynamics analysis. Past that, I can't speak for it. At University I used Mathematica, but I just don't need all it can do at this point, so once again Python has proven to be \"good enough.\" Matlab will be a similar story (e", "context": "", "use_case": "symbolic math", "switched_from": "", "story": "Python 3.14 garbage collection rigamarole"}, {"id": 754202352, "item_id": 47137647, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47137647", "by": "stared", "date": "2026-02-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used it deeply 10-15 years ago, before I migrated to Python/Jupyter Notebook ecosystem", "excerpt": "Either I miss something, or is it yet another marketing approach by Stephen Wolfram? The post talks about \"foundation tool\", yet it offers an MCP to a proprietary app (out of miriads of such). Sure, as any other tech, Mathematica may have its edges (I used it deeply 10-15 years ago, before I migrated to Python/Jupyter Notebook ecosystem). But in the grand scheme of things, it is yet another tech, and one that is losi", "context": "", "use_case": "computational work", "switched_from": "", "story": "Making Wolfram Tech Available as a Foundation Tool for LLM Systems"}]}, {"label": "Overkill", "summary": "Some users find it more than they need for basic or everyday tasks.", "quotes": [{"id": 749370224, "item_id": 46835639, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46835639", "by": "srvmshr", "date": "2026-01-31", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I was using Mathematica or NumPy/Sympy quite a bit.", "excerpt": "During my bachelors, I was using a Casio FX-991ES+. It was a beautiful calculator compared to the hand-me-down Fx-82 VPAM. And pretty popular with the folks of my age that time. During and after grad school, I was using Mathematica or NumPy/Sympy quite a bit. But it felt like using an overpowered system to do basic assignments. Think of taking a Bugatti Veyron for grocery shopping. I indulged myself with another phys", "context": "grad school student", "use_case": "grad school computations", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Do you still physical calculators?"}, {"id": 776464225, "item_id": 48529014, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48529014", "by": "targafarian", "date": "2026-06-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Mathematica and Matlab are terrible for a lot of reasons.", "excerpt": "I forget who said it, but Python isn't the best at anything but it's decent to good at nearly everything, and that's why it's become so popular. I do a lot of what I need symbolically in SymPy for dynamics analysis. Past that, I can't speak for it. At University I used Mathematica, but I just don't need all it can do at this point, so once again Python has proven to be \"good enough.\" Matlab will be a similar story (e", "context": "", "use_case": "symbolic math", "switched_from": "", "story": "Python 3.14 garbage collection rigamarole"}]}, {"label": "Learning shortcut", "summary": "Commenters warn that using it for coursework can leave gaps in understanding.", "quotes": [{"id": 791651664, "item_id": 49478229, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49478229", "by": "fasterik", "date": "2026-08-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "they're indispensable to the working mathematician, physicist, or engineer", "excerpt": "That's why we use different tools when teaching/learning something vs. doing real work. Another example is computer algebra systems like Mathematica. It would be self-sabotage to use them on your calculus homework, but they're indispensable to the working mathematician, physicist, or engineer, whose time is wasted doing routine calculations by hand.", "context": "", "use_case": "computer algebra for professional work", "switched_from": "", "story": "Decompiling a Nintendo 64 game in 84 days"}, {"id": 784239312, "item_id": 49014957, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49014957", "by": "jeffreyrogers", "date": "2026-07-22", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "In college I used mathematica a lot while taking linear algebra.", "excerpt": "In college I used mathematica a lot while taking linear algebra. I ended up having to relearn a lot of that math later since I never really understood it at a deep level, although I was able to use it and apply it under class conditions. I feel like a lot of my LLM knowledge is similar superficial.", "context": "", "use_case": "linear algebra coursework", "switched_from": "", "story": "Quality non-fiction books are the antithesis of AI slop"}]}], "who": [{"by": "adalacelove", "context": "paying customer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49277377", "date": "2026-08-12"}, {"by": "peterus", "context": "university student", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49273294", "date": "2026-08-12"}, {"by": "pama", "context": "long-time Mathematica user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49271862", "date": "2026-08-12"}, {"by": "raegis", "context": "used it in 1991 on NeXT", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48565605", "date": "2026-06-16"}, {"by": "the__alchemist", "context": "building structural bio crate infrastructure", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47196606", "date": "2026-02-28"}, {"by": "srvmshr", "context": "grad school student", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46835639", "date": "2026-01-31"}, {"by": "hebejebelus", "context": "non-mathematician", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46172112", "date": "2025-12-06"}, {"by": "Grosvenor", "context": "data scientist with 20+ years experience", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46110952", "date": "2025-12-01"}, {"by": "eggy", "context": "uses Home edition", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45862025", "date": "2025-11-08"}], "tags": ["for scientists and engineers", "for students", "for non-mathematicians", "AI/MCP integration"], "use_cases": ["interactive concept exploration", "computation via ai plugin", "computer algebra for professional work", "math notebooks", "working out equations", "university coursework"], "compared": [{"slug": "sympy", "name": "SymPy", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "sagemath", "name": "SageMath", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "matlab", "name": "MATLAB", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "jupyter", "name": "Jupyter", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "woxi", "name": "Woxi", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49270040", "title": "Show HN: Woxi - Open-source Mathematica / Wolfram Language reimplementation", "mentions": 5}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48563609", "title": "Wolfram Language and Mathematica Version 15, AI Assistant, Symbolic Music, More", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49982498", "title": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49996425", "title": "GPT\u20116 and Intelligent UI for everyone", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49841563", "title": "Dutch governments builds alternative for Microsoft based on NixOS", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49671157", "title": "Andr\u00e9 Weil and the Hodge Conjecture", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 2}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-02": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"warn": 1, "neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 2, "recommend": 4}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 2}}, "quotes": [{"id": 801118625, "item_id": 50069914, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50069914", "by": "nz", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The only software that I am happy to pay for is: Mathematica", "excerpt": "To be fair, Open Source has always been a threat to proprietary software. To be concrete, and I don't care what anyone else says, I will always prefer Krita to PhotoShop (because it is free, open, _and_ better, IMHO). LLMs just make it possible to get a minimum-viable-clone very quickly (whether it is as good as a traditional open-source re-implementation, is a different matter). The only software that I am happy to ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month"}, {"id": 800016816, "item_id": 50001051, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50001051", "by": "6thbit", "date": "2026-10-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This brings Mathematica\u2019s Manipulate elements to mind. I love those", "excerpt": "This brings Mathematica\u2019s Manipulate elements to mind. I love those, once you determine the variables and make it interactive concepts come alive. At least seems a fist step out of the serial interface of chats.", "context": "", "use_case": "interactive concept exploration", "switched_from": "", "story": "GPT\u20116 and Intelligent UI for everyone"}, {"id": 797531025, "item_id": 49845689, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49845689", "by": "tombert", "date": "2026-09-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Both Apple Numbers and Mathematica still depend on a proprietary software package from a for-profit company", "excerpt": "Both Apple Numbers and Mathematica still depend on a proprietary software package from a for-profit company though. I think the only way we can actually solve the problem is to get a FOSS product up to snuff with Excel. I use Julia if I need really elaborate number crunching, but I don\u2019t view it as a substitute for Excel; the interactivity of spreadsheets is really useful, especially when you\u2019re actively developing s", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Dutch governments builds alternative for Microsoft based on NixOS"}, {"id": 795953264, "item_id": 49747079, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49747079", "by": "mlh496", "date": "2026-09-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Mathematica now has an MCP which I use regularly from Claude Code. It's nice not having to write the lengthy Mathematica expressions by hand.", "excerpt": "I think Mathematica will survive because the alternative is for AIs to write the code to do a computation or use an open-source library. And there are many calculations for which there simply isn't an open-source tool for evaluating. But I wouldn't be surprised to see Mathematica being used primarily as an AI plugin in the coming years. Mathematica now has an MCP which I use regularly from Claude Code. It's nice not ", "context": "", "use_case": "computation via AI plugin", "switched_from": "", "story": "Andr\u00e9 Weil and the Hodge Conjecture"}, {"id": 791651664, "item_id": 49478229, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49478229", "by": "fasterik", "date": "2026-08-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "they're indispensable to the working mathematician, physicist, or engineer", "excerpt": "That's why we use different tools when teaching/learning something vs. doing real work. Another example is computer algebra systems like Mathematica. It would be self-sabotage to use them on your calculus homework, but they're indispensable to the working mathematician, physicist, or engineer, whose time is wasted doing routine calculations by hand.", "context": "", "use_case": "computer algebra for professional work", "switched_from": "", "story": "Decompiling a Nintendo 64 game in 84 days"}, {"id": 788494945, "item_id": 49280934, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49280934", "by": "dataminded", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "A lot of what makes Mathematica notebooks valuable is that they're readable.", "excerpt": "I did go back and play with it to confirm I felt as strongly as I do. I used a combination of my inputs and the notebooks available here to see how much it mattered (https://www.wolfram-media.com/products/introduction-to-calculus/) ASCII entry is great if you already know exactly what you're doing. There's no built-in tooling to help you convert your intent to ASCII. You have to be confident that your entry accuratel", "context": "", "use_case": "math notebooks", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Woxi - Open-source Mathematica / Wolfram Language reimplementation"}, {"id": 788470352, "item_id": 49279397, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49279397", "by": "webslinger1", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used Mathematica for many years for getting equations right.", "excerpt": "I used Mathematica for many years for getting equations right. If you're looking for new ideas I thought being able to make approximations (other than series approximations) would have been a great addition. Examples include SVEA, plane-wave approximation, RWA, paraxial approximation, binomial approximation, etc.", "context": "", "use_case": "working out equations", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Woxi - Open-source Mathematica / Wolfram Language reimplementation"}, {"id": 788438032, "item_id": 49277377, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49277377", "by": "adalacelove", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Happy paying Mathematica customer here.", "excerpt": "Happy paying Mathematica customer here. I think this is great. A lot of people want to have a free alternative. For me, the real value of this is the creation of a community and setting the foundation for something better than Mathematica. I'm on the side of those that think that programming languages are a tool of thought and Wolfram lang can be extremely expressive. I love non-mainstream but useful languages.", "context": "paying customer", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Woxi - Open-source Mathematica / Wolfram Language reimplementation"}, {"id": 788372704, "item_id": 49273294, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49273294", "by": "peterus", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "most of the time I use Mathematica it is not to make a readable and repeatable notebook but just to help with uni work", "excerpt": "I get the reasons for not supporting out of order execution and the % variable, it makes for more readable and usable notebooks. Unfortunately most of the time I use Mathematica it is not to make a readable and repeatable notebook but just to help with uni work, so I do take shortcuts like putting multiple statements in a block and using % frequently. If you are planning to add another component, I'd like to +1 the c", "context": "university student", "use_case": "university coursework", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Woxi - Open-source Mathematica / Wolfram Language reimplementation"}, {"id": 788349792, "item_id": 49271862, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49271862", "by": "pama", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "the first version of Mathematica I used back in early 1993 was 2.1", "excerpt": "You now fully support version 1.0. IIRC, the first version of Mathematica I used back in early 1993 was 2.1 soon followed by 2.2, which was useful for a couple of years. How much extra work is it to reach full compatibility with that version? (I had used MathLink at the time.)", "context": "long-time Mathematica user", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Woxi - Open-source Mathematica / Wolfram Language reimplementation"}, {"id": 784239312, "item_id": 49014957, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49014957", "by": "jeffreyrogers", "date": "2026-07-22", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "In college I used mathematica a lot while taking linear algebra.", "excerpt": "In college I used mathematica a lot while taking linear algebra. I ended up having to relearn a lot of that math later since I never really understood it at a deep level, although I was able to use it and apply it under class conditions. I feel like a lot of my LLM knowledge is similar superficial.", "context": "", "use_case": "linear algebra coursework", "switched_from": "", "story": "Quality non-fiction books are the antithesis of AI slop"}, {"id": 777049680, "item_id": 48565605, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48565605", "by": "raegis", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it was very, very easy to write in Mathematica with cool graphics.", "excerpt": "I used Mathematica on a NeXT computer back in 1991. It was a beautiful machine to work on. I did a student project where I simulated the flow of the boundary of a plane region over time (like how the shape of a drop of oil in water changes over time) and it was very, very easy to write in Mathematica with cool graphics.", "context": "used it in 1991 on NeXT", "use_case": "student simulation project", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wolfram Language and Mathematica Version 15, AI Assistant, Symbolic Music, More"}, {"id": 777042369, "item_id": 48565148, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48565148", "by": "markgall", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Everything I used to do in Mathematica I now do in sage", "excerpt": "Probably the most general-purpose one is SageMath, which is open-source and basically Python with a ton of sophisticated math stuff built into it. Everything I used to do in Mathematica I now do in sage, and I don't think I'm the only one. Probably field-dependent though. Of course there is a whole constellation of more specialized things in certain fields, that has come a long way in the last 15 years. So people nee", "context": "", "use_case": "math", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wolfram Language and Mathematica Version 15, AI Assistant, Symbolic Music, More"}, {"id": 776464225, "item_id": 48529014, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48529014", "by": "targafarian", "date": "2026-06-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Mathematica and Matlab are terrible for a lot of reasons.", "excerpt": "I forget who said it, but Python isn't the best at anything but it's decent to good at nearly everything, and that's why it's become so popular. I do a lot of what I need symbolically in SymPy for dynamics analysis. Past that, I can't speak for it. At University I used Mathematica, but I just don't need all it can do at this point, so once again Python has proven to be \"good enough.\" Matlab will be a similar story (e", "context": "", "use_case": "symbolic math", "switched_from": "", "story": "Python 3.14 garbage collection rigamarole"}, {"id": 755145696, "item_id": 47196606, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47196606", "by": "the__alchemist", "date": "2026-02-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Mathematica and have a personal sub.", "excerpt": "I love Rust for mathematical and scientific tasks (I am building the structural bio crate infrastructure), and I love Mathematica and have a personal sub. I should be the audience, but... What makes Mathematica great, IMO, is the polish and overall experience created by consistent work with applications in mind over decades. So, I look at this project with skepticism regarding its utility.", "context": "building structural bio crate infrastructure", "use_case": "scientific computing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Woxi: Wolfram Mathematica Reimplementation in Rust"}, {"id": 754202352, "item_id": 47137647, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47137647", "by": "stared", "date": "2026-02-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used it deeply 10-15 years ago, before I migrated to Python/Jupyter Notebook ecosystem", "excerpt": "Either I miss something, or is it yet another marketing approach by Stephen Wolfram? The post talks about \"foundation tool\", yet it offers an MCP to a proprietary app (out of miriads of such). Sure, as any other tech, Mathematica may have its edges (I used it deeply 10-15 years ago, before I migrated to Python/Jupyter Notebook ecosystem). But in the grand scheme of things, it is yet another tech, and one that is losi", "context": "", "use_case": "computational work", "switched_from": "", "story": "Making Wolfram Tech Available as a Foundation Tool for LLM Systems"}, {"id": 749370224, "item_id": 46835639, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46835639", "by": "srvmshr", "date": "2026-01-31", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I was using Mathematica or NumPy/Sympy quite a bit.", "excerpt": "During my bachelors, I was using a Casio FX-991ES+. It was a beautiful calculator compared to the hand-me-down Fx-82 VPAM. And pretty popular with the folks of my age that time. During and after grad school, I was using Mathematica or NumPy/Sympy quite a bit. But it felt like using an overpowered system to do basic assignments. Think of taking a Bugatti Veyron for grocery shopping. I indulged myself with another phys", "context": "grad school student", "use_case": "grad school computations", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Do you still physical calculators?"}, {"id": 741676928, "item_id": 46354808, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46354808", "by": "qubex", "date": "2025-12-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My Mathematica 14.3 license.", "excerpt": "My Graf Castell Tiago fountain pen. My Barbour Kontiki jacket. My iPhone Pro Max 17/Apple Watch Ultra 3/Airpods Pro 3 ensemble. My Lapham\u2019s Quarterly subscription. My LimeSDR/Raspberry Pi 5 16GB setup. My Pokit Pro. My Mathematica 14.3 license. My Oliver\u2019s People reading glasses. My tailored suits.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are your Favorite Things? (2025)"}, {"id": 738753792, "item_id": 46172112, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46172112", "by": "hebejebelus", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm a non-mathematician and I used it for lots of novel stuff - GIS, visualisations of all kinds, machine learning.", "excerpt": "I'm a non-mathematician and I used it for lots of novel stuff - GIS, visualisations of all kinds, machine learning. The Wolfram Community staff picks is a great introduction into the varied things you can do: https://community.wolfram.com/content?curTag=staff%20picks", "context": "non-mathematician", "use_case": "GIS, visualisation, machine learning", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wolfram Compute Services"}, {"id": 737775238, "item_id": 46110952, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46110952", "by": "Grosvenor", "date": "2025-12-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use the normal stacks you'd expect. Python, Pytorch, Spark/ray, Jupyter/Merimo, AWS, Postgres, Mathematica", "excerpt": ".-~~\\ / \\ _ ~x .-~_)_ ~x\".-~ ~-. _ ( / \\ _ || T o o Y || ==:l l < ! I;== \\\\ \\ .__/ / // \\\\ ,r\"-,___.-'r.// }^ \\.( ) _.'//. / }~Xi--~ // \\ Y Y I\\ \\ \" Y | | |o\\ \\ | | l_l Y T | l \"o l_j ! \\ / ___,.---^. o .^---.._____ \"~~~ \" ~ ~~~\" SEEKING WORK - Data scientist, consulting & fractional leadership, US/remote worldwide, email in profile. All I want for christmas is some gnarly problems to chew on, otherwise it's coal for", "context": "data scientist with 20+ years experience", "use_case": "data science consulting", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (December 2025)"}, {"id": 733792400, "item_id": 45862025, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45862025", "by": "eggy", "date": "2025-11-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love to play in Mathematica. It is function rich and the documentation is amazing.", "excerpt": "I've heard this one before. I still use Mathematica (Home edition). It has curated data and more than just a notebook interface, which it pretty much invented. I use Julia with Pluto, SMath Studio, Frink, and some others for Maths toolbox. I love to play in Mathematica. It is function rich and the documentation is amazing. I usually prototype/research in it. But then again, I drop to BQN/APL/J for some math fun.", "context": "uses Home edition", "use_case": "math prototyping and research", "switched_from": "", "story": "I replaced Mathematica with this free and open-source alternative (SageMath)"}]}