CatchingOn

^z 11th March 2025 at 7:42am

"When will Wiki become popular?" the aficionados groan.

Better to ask, "When will confluent hypergeometric functions become popular?"

Maybe never. Or maybe both are already quite popular — but hardly anyone notices. Confluent hypergeometric functions, like Wiki, are tools for solving particular classes of problems. They can be used by novices, cookbook-fashion, to get a standard job done ... or by masters, with creative insight, in startling and fruitful ways.

Really powerful tools don't have to be on the top-ten list in this week's newspaper. They don't have to be a source of brand-name cash flow either.

Like knitting needles ... welding torches ... pencils ... horses ... metaphors ...

(see also Thinking Environments (7 Apr 1999), Wiki Is It (31 Oct 2001), ...)


TopicProgramming - TopicArt - 2002-09-20



(correlates: LoLa, MetaHominidae, ChivalrousReasoning, ...)