Robert Jacobson

A brief history of the Pratt parsing algorithm The history of programming language parsers is dominated by the thorny challenge of parsing expressions, mathematical expressions in particular, taking into account the pecedence of

This article is an expanded version of the math part of an article I cowrote with marine biologist Dr. Andrew Rhyne about how many well-meaning public health professionals have misinterpreted the math behind

This short article is for those students, programmers, and computer scientists who already have a basic idea of what a parser is and does but who want to know what that mysterious reference

In this third installment of our n part series, “Defining the Wolfram Language,” we begin to study the properties, namely the arity, affix, associativity, and precedence, of the Mathematica operators we found in

In programming languages, an operator is a symbol used to represent a specific operation such as subtraction of integers or dereferencing a pointer. The symbols +, *, and ! are commonly used as

Finding All Wolfram Language Operators In this second article, Part 1 of an n part series on Defining the Wolfram Language, we start getting our hands dirty hunting down every single operator in

What is the definition of the Wolfram Language? This is the first in a series of articles attempting to answer this question. What is a programming language, really? Most programming languages in production

Using computers to do automatic translation has a long and rich history in computer science. A course in compiler construction is a veritable survey of topics in computer science running the gamut from

In which I show you how to programmatically interface with a Mathematica kernel from Python. Mathematica, Python, and Scientific Computation Mathematica is the flagship product of Wolfram Research. It’s a very sophisticated computer

Euclid in The School of Athens This is a very special fresco painting by Italian Renaissance artist Raphael in the Vatican Museum called The School of Athens. It depicts the great philosophers of

The story begins with one of those little mundane activities that fill every professor’s day. Right before the spring semester began I was evaluating various textbook options for the next time I teach

Do you need to ask your professor for an extension on a due date or to reschedule a quiz? A little thought before you click send on that email can make a big

The Mathematics Community on Google+ had our second ever Hangout On Air last week. I was joined by Luis Guzman, Jason Davison, and Amy Robinson in a conversation that ranged from fluid dynamics

No. No it does not. Not even a little bit. But that isn’t stopping Mark Hulbert, writer for MarketWatch and a host of other Wallstreet rags, from using it to bring in pageviews

While the target audience of this article is my fantastic calculus students, other math teachers might enjoy it as well. Sneaky Continuous Functions When students in first semester calculus first start learning about

Susan Meisenhelder offers a scathing critique of MOOCs in her article “MOOC Mania” published in the latest issue of Thought & Action. (Here is a link to a ~5mb pdf of her article.)

It’s over. Getting my internet fix in the hotel lobby at midnight, walking 18 miles a day through the convention center, sitting in uncomfortable chairs for hours, getting dinner in a local restaurant

I love the exhibit hall. I love books, and the exhibit hall is full of some of my favorite kinds of books. I spend hours picking through the texts, flipping through their pages.

The best part of the Joint Meetings is networking with like-minded people. I ran into many old friends and colleagues. Today (Thursday) several math bloggers and Google+’ers organized an impromptu meeting for lunch.

Today I learned about connections between musical rhythm and knot theory, abstract algebra and dance, a Navy ship from the mid 1800s called the U.S.S. Constellation, and some great undergraduate real analysis pedagogy.

I am in Baltimore to attend the 2014 Joint Mathematics Meetings, the largest gathering of mathematicians in the world involving the American Mathematical Society, the Mathematics Association of America, and many other professional

A colleague who had been worried about one of her star students who had been missing from class for a couple of weeks came into my office. “She committed suicide yesterday.” She needed