So Mathematica would be the most popular interface or working environment for the Wolfram language. That includes some functions used almost only by the front end like ToBoxes. wolfram on the Raspberry pi or mathematica on other machines. This information is valid as of June 2014.īy analogy with Python for example, I suggest that the Wolfram language be everything that can be interpreted in the command line. The have exactly the same computational capabilities. Other then using a notebook interface or a traditional command line for input, these two are identical. Somewhat confusingly, in Raspbian the icon that starts the Front End is called 'Mathematica' and the icon that starts the Kernel in command line mode is called 'Wolfram', suggesting that they will start different systems. (This is why exporting graphics requires a running X server-use Xvfb on headless machines.) When exporting graphics, the Front End is launched in the background without displaying anything on screen, and the graphics object is sent to it for rendering. However, certain functions, such as exporting graphics, do require the Front End. The Kernel can be run alone and used in command line mode. The Front End can show notebook documents without the kernel, but all computations must be sent to a running kernel for evaluation. These two processes are independent but they rely on each other: This used to be known as the Mathematica Kernel. This has traditionally been known as the Mathematica Front End. One that displays the GUI and the notebook interface. To understand the difference between these two, one needs to understand the architecture of Mathematica first.

There are two related icons on the desktop, 'Mathematica' and 'Wolfram'. Only the user interface differs.Īs of 2014 June, the Raspbian operating system (of the Raspberry Pi computer) comes with Mathematica pre-installed. Tl dr The programs started by the 'Mathematica' and 'Wolfram' icons in Raspbian have the same capabilities and the same back end.

Clarifications about the Raspberry Pi version

Wolfram mathematica pi symbol