[programnature]

Have you actually used the computable data functionality in Wolfram products?

If you think its a matter of just connecting to a standard database, you are missing the whole point.

People in the data business tell you cleaning and preparing the data is 80% of the work. Wolfram has done that for you. And then taken it farther: integrating it directly into language constructs.

I think SW's post did a poor job of explaining these capabilities, but in some domains this integration totally trounces what is possible in other systems. A great example of this is how GeoGraphics works:

http://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/GeoGraphics.html

Notice how semantic entities like countries and landmarks are interoperable with the graphics language.

[zimbatm]

I think we're operating on a different definition of "language". Unlike natural languages a programming language has extension points to define new vocabulary, it doesn't mean that all available words are part of the language. Otherwise it's like saying that everything that is in perl's CPAN is part of the language.

Usually there is a distinction that's made where the language is the syntax + the semantic defined by the compiler or the runtime. Then comes the standard library, then comes the user libraries. The "wolfram language" seem to mash everything together into a single thing.

[NotAtWork]

In what way is anything in that example different than say, a DSL implemented in Lisp macros connected to a database?