Mathematica and Mathematica Notebook
Most people uses Mathematica with its Notebook interface. It would be revealing to know that this product duo was bundled with NeXT Computer in 1989 when this hardware product was first released. It also was the main development platform that allowed Sir Tim Berners-Lee to implement World Wide Web. During that time, the notion of Client-Server architecture was prevalent in the software industry. Database runs on a server, where many client machines reaches out to a remote database server to share data resources.
Mathematica run as a single machine Client-Server architecture
Back in the days when Mathematica was first released, it was already running as a Client-Server architecture, which was part of the reason why the program was constantly criticized for being sluggish given the available hardware to run this very large program. The Mathematica kernel is always access via a math-link program that could be sitting on a remote machine. Mathematica Notebook always need a Mathematica kernel to function, and it can be configured to use a kernel running on a remote machine.
The separation of kernel and notebook
Separating kernel as the server, and notebook as the client has its advantages and drawbacks. The drawbacks are clear, especially at a time when computing resources are limited. The advantages wasn't clear to most people, unless a very complex system is deployed. When NeXT Computer was first shipped, the Internet had already been running in many research laboratories around the world, but the applications are scarce. The Mathematica Notebook solution clearly had a major impact on the design and implementation of World Wide Web, which is a Client-Server architecture.
Relevant facts
- The Internet as a Scale-free data platform:Time Berners-Lee tweets:"This is for Everyone"
- A unifying network-enable programming environment: Tim Berners-Lee showing his NeXT Computer in the 2012 Olympic ceremony
- The notion of Client-Server architecture: Mathematica and Mathematica Notebook[1]
References
- ↑ Somers, James (April 5, 2018). "The Scientific Paper Is Obsolete Here's what's next". local page: The Atlantic.