WebMath: New Mathwright Library and Cafe

[James White]

Dear Paul,

	Please take a look at the New Library.  The new installer lets you choose
any installation directory or drive you want, and will not create multiple
directories.  In fact, many of the aging features at the previous site have
been replaced.  As far as applets are concerned, we have developed a Java 2
(Swing) Applet version of Mathwright called Lava.  It is available for
viewing at the site.  You won't find many applets out there that do the
sprite animated simulations that Mathwright does.  For example, let me know
if you find one that plays 4x4x4 Tic-Tac-Toe using OpenGL graphics and a
game board that you can rotate, translate and fly through in real-time using
16 million colors.  My point is that applets, even Lava, are limited for
rather obvious reasons.  There is nothing like an application running on the
user machine for real-time simulations or sophisticated computer algebra.

													Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-webmath at camel.math.ca [mailto:owner-webmath at camel.math.ca]On
Behalf Of Paul Topping
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2001 2:47 PM
To: 'webmath at camel.math.ca'
Subject: RE: WebMath: New Mathwright Library and Cafe


Interesting, but your installer needs much work:

- It wants to install stuff directly at the root of my hard drive. Instead
it should be in Program Files.

- It created multiple "Mathwright Library" entries in my Start menu.

I've seen Java-based "mathlets" that seem to do pretty much the same job
with much less installing and mucking around. Why all the extra machinery?

Paul
>  -----Original Message-----
> From: 	James White [mailto:mathwrig at gte.net]
> Sent:	Thursday, February 01, 2001 1:25 PM
> To:	webmath at camel.math.ca
> Subject:	WebMath: New Mathwright Library and Cafe
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> 	Please accept our invitation to visit and celebrate the gala opening
> of the New Mathwright Library and Cafe.  The URL is
> http://www.mathwright.com.  Since the Mathwright Library appeared on the
> web in early 1995, we enjoy the dubious distinction of being one of the
> first mathematics digital libraries.  And we quickly became something of
> an "historical monument" or an antique in light of our early arrival to
> the internet.  The New Library and Cafe, however,  is a state-of-the-art
> virtual place that puts the best features of the new web technologies at
> the disposal of our readers.
> 	In fact, the paradigm that we implement is simple, but may be
> unfamiliar.  Our readers come to the Library and 'register' by downloading
> the Mathwright Library Player to their own machines.  This Player is a
> full-featured computer algebra and graphics environment that supports and
> operates the WorkBooks on their machines. Then they browse the Stacks (70
> rooms of WorkBooks)  in a variety of ways to find interactive WorkBooks
> that they would like to explore.  They download these WorkBooks to their
> own machines, each building her "own" Mathwright Library that she can read
> at her leisure, whether on the web or not.  This gives the readers time to
> explore in directions they choose, and to indulge their free-form and
> gratuitous curiosity, and to 'play' with new ideas.  According to Piaget,
> 'play' is the most powerful source of new and enduring knowledge.
> 	The WorkBooks themselves range in size from 1 to 38 pages (averaging
> about 6 pages) and they have the look and feel of web pages -- web pages
> with a degree in mathematics. So they have no problem calculating,
> simplifying, and displaying mathematical expressions in a form that
> students can understand, or doing interactive (not canned) sprite
> animations, 3D graphics, and simulations while solving differential
> equations in the background in real-time. And they do exact arithmetic and
> algebra when that is critical to the story.  In fact, many of our
> WorkBooks are written as stories.
> 	From its inception,  the Library has distinguished itself in several
> ways from the mathematics resources generally available on the web. The
> Library has always been a 'constructivist' site in the Piagetian sense,
> built on the premise that students understand the answers to the questions
> they themselves ask, better than they understand the answers to the
> questions that we, or textbooks, ask (then answer) for them.  Our Library
> WorkBooks are designed to elicit questions from reader, and then to
> provide answers to their questions.  And they are all written by
> mathematics teachers themselves (at the secondary and undergraduate
> level), rather than by software engineers or undergraduate computer
> science students.  (Actually, a few were designed and written by my own
> mathematics students).
> 	The Library is also a 'reform' site in the Tulane sense.  Many of
> our WorkBooks and course sequences are designed to encourage independent
> and collaborative thinking, and to discourage formulaic thinking or rote
> memorization.
>
> 	Rather than go on, I'll stop haranguing you. I invite you to stop
> by, and see what we're up to.
>
> James E. White, Ph.D.
> "The Heart has its reasons that Reason can never know"
> - Pascal's motto
>
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