Today.Az » Weird / Interesting » Wolfram's new 'CDF' format brings computation power to the individual document
22 July 2011 [13:24] - Today.Az
The PDF has long reigned as the universal document, one that can be read by almost any machine anywhere and be formatted to hold various kinds of information: text, charts, graphics, images, etc. But the problem with PDFs (or spreadsheets for that matter) is that they’re pretty static--with the exception of a few (admittedly handy) features, they are fixed in what they can do and convey. Wolfram Research is trying to change that with the Computable Document Format (CDF), a new kind of interactive document that brings computation to the document itself.
An easy way to think of the CDF is like a PDF with embedded apps. It’s a document that essentially computes within itself, adding a layer of interactivity to things like graphics and charts that let the user not only see data but explore it as well.
Think of something like a financial report from an investment firm. The
author may want to allow the reader to not only see a particular fund’s
numbers for the quarter, but also manipulate the data themselves. How
much money could an investor have made if he or she invested five
percent more with the firm? How much could he or she have made (or make)
if he or she split her investment between a few different funds?
A CDF could accommodate an embedded app that allows the user to enter
number values into an app in the document, adjust expected rates of
return over time, or plug a range of other data and then view the
quarterly data through his or her own customized lens. Similarly, things
like digital textbooks in CDF format allow for interactive graphics
that live inside the document, augmenting the learning experience and
allowing students to participate in and manipulate the data presented to
them.
It’s a pretty neat idea, but also one facing some challenges. For
one, someone has to create these “knowledge apps,” and not every author
is also a programmer (or well-funded enough to develop custom-tailored
apps). To that end, Wolfram is trying to simplify the authoring process
with a language of programming that simplifies the process. In other
words, Wolfram wants to simplify the authoring of interactive apps such
that they are no more difficult than building a macro in Microsoft
Excel.
Another challenge is getting the CDF Player software itself to run.
It took this PopSci writer and one PopSci editor--say what you will
about the combined intellectual capacity at play here--working on two
separate machines more than a couple of tries to get the CDF Player
working properly in our browsers (one obvious hint: make sure to restart
your browser after you download). But hey, the CDF is new and bound to
be a bit buggy getting off the ground. You can download the CDF Player
for free here, after which you can check out several neat examples of CDF’s interactivity here.
/Popular Science/
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