MathCAD 14

[zdas04]

Version 14 is the first new release since Mathsoft merged (was purchased by?) PTC. It has been out for a couple of months so far and the MathCAD collaboratory has been pretty quiet on the release and there has not been much discussion here.

Does anyone have a feel if PTC was able to break the even-numbered version curse that has been quite real for the last few years? Is this a decent program or is it a buggy mess with half implemented versions of some ok ideas?

The list of enhancements in the slick literature mostly didn't impact areas that I use every day and I'm pretty tired of being burned by bad releases so I'm not sure I'm willing to ever shell out the money for an even-numbered release again, but I was wondering if there was anyone out there that loved it.

David

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

http://www.muleshoe-eng.com

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[IRstuff]

PTC is simply holding the bag. The beta testing was performed while it was still Mathsoft.

Don't think that there's too many with M11 that particularly want to upgrade, although, as I mentioned elsewhere, M14 is running a particular numeric loop faster than M11 was running it, so M14 has regained some of the numeric processing throughput lost in the verious version upgrades. That's encouraging.

I think that if you're happy with your current version, there's little incentive to change. There are those who still run M6 or M8 and are perfectly happy.

See, the even number curse is a recent phenomenon.

TTFN

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[zdas04]

I agree, I never really noticed the even-numbered-version problem until 2001i (V10), and V12 was even worse. Before that I anxiously awaited each new version to see what had been added. I think the first version I used was V4 and I've bought every upgrade since even though I did exorcise 2001i and V12 pretty quickly.

PTC may not have been involved in the development of V14, but their logo is on the release announcement. They are definitely painted with that brush.

David

 

[GregLocock]

You kids.

I used the pre V1 demo! it was on a 5 1/4" floppy.



Cheers

Greg Locock

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[jghrist]

I also started with V1. I forget when that was, but the oldest worksheet that I still have is from 1993. It says something good about backward compatibility that I can still run this worksheet in V13 with minor modifications (it used a dimensioned array without a second value in the range, which is no longer allowed). Cost $100, about 2-3% of the cost of my PC at the time. Cost now is about equal to the cost of my PC.

 

[zdas04]

I had to buy V4 on my T&E card and install it on a computer not connected to the network to get past the IT gestapo. I think it was V8 before IT would allow it to touch the internal network.

David