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Mathematica 8 includes "Wolfram | Alpha integration", but the features of Alpha available in Mathematica seem not to include many of those available in the "Pro" version of Alpha.

Does Mathematica 8 include Alpha's Plus features? If not, has Wolfram announced plans to include them?

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    $\begingroup$ Given that Mathematica 8 was published in November 2010 and Wolfram|Alpha Pro was launched only 2 months ago it isn't really that surprising that Mma 8 doesn't include the pro version of W|A IMHO. $\endgroup$
    – Heike
    Commented Apr 15, 2012 at 8:10
  • $\begingroup$ More reasons to quickly publish Mathematica 9... $\endgroup$
    – István Zachar
    Commented Apr 15, 2012 at 9:14
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    $\begingroup$ Now that mathematica 9 is out, does it include the alpha pro features that mathematica 8 didn't? $\endgroup$
    – Peeter Joot
    Commented Jan 21, 2013 at 20:18

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I can't say that all the Alpha Pro features are available through V8 of Mathematica, but certainly many are. Here are three examples:

Type "derivative of x^2" into Alpha. If you are not logged into the Pro version, you will be unable to access the result, other than as a visual image. In particular, you can't easily copy and paste results.

Or try, just "z^2-1" in Alpha. You'll notice a number of pods that have an "Enable Interactivity" button. If you press such a button, Alpha generates some type of groovy interactive CDF content, if you are logged into Pro. Without Pro, you can't interact with that content. In Mathematica, all those interactives are switched on by default.

Finally, Alpha Pro gives you direct access to scads of data for queries like "US Population history". You need Pro to do this or, again, you can do it directly through Mathematica without Pro.

I would be surprised if all Pro features work immediately through Mathematica. Do you have specific examples that you were thinking of?

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  • $\begingroup$ I think I see the problem now: Wolfram's notion of "interactivity", as provided by Alpha Pro, is far more limited than I'd assumed. For most elements, it amounts to being able to (wait a very very long time and then) resize or copy them (an ability which is, indeed, included in the Alpha results in Mathematica 8). $\endgroup$
    – orome
    Commented Apr 15, 2012 at 14:37
  • $\begingroup$ @rax Hmm... Seems like there's a lot more interactivity than that to me. Even for a basic 3D plot (in addition to the ability to rescale, rotate, and copy) I see the ability to set the x and y scales, the mesh variables and mesh densities - exactly as on the W|A site. For many other inputs (such as the "z^2-1") example that I mentioned before, there are much more substantial interactives. $\endgroup$
    – Mark McClure
    Commented Apr 15, 2012 at 17:41
  • $\begingroup$ The definitions of "most" and many" will, of course, depend on experience and the types of queries one does. For simple queries like, say, "Saturn", while every element has a button advertising interactivity that requires a Pro account, subscribing to Pro reveals that this "interactivity" consists of nothing more than being able to copy, and resize the elements. $\endgroup$
    – orome
    Commented Apr 15, 2012 at 19:55
  • $\begingroup$ @rax Clearly, you're correct about qualitative terms like "most" and "many". Concerning your specific example of "Saturn", however, I don't see a single "Enable interactivity" button that appears by default. I do see "Enable interactivity" buttons that appear contextually, that is when the mouse is hovered at the correct spot, but none that appear by default in the lower right corner of the pod. Thus, there appears to be no enhancement to the output. $\endgroup$
    – Mark McClure
    Commented Apr 16, 2012 at 2:36

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