brad@kontron.UUCP (Brad Yearwood) (02/26/86)
Are there symbolic math packages that are available at a cost that
would be within reason for an individual who wants to experiment
and perhaps explore the inner workings?
I am aware of the existence of MAPLE and REDUCE, but do not know
who to contact about distribution information and costs.
MACSYMA seems nearly hopeless - even the DOE-MACSYMA version, when
obtained through NESC, seems to require about $2100 of initial fees.
Does anyone know of a legitimate DOE-MACSYMA leakage that harmlessly
bypasses the NESC extravagance?
I would appreciate pointers to distribution information on MAPLE
and REDUCE, and any clues about DOE-MACSYMA.
Another question - is anyone aware of work on systems which can explain
their manipulations in terms of human-recognized principles? Example:
I applied the Grundleblatt Expansion to get:
(immense expression)
then applied Woodnymph's Rule to simplify to:
(smaller expression)
which trivial algebra simplifies to:
1/x.
Brad Yearwood
Kontron Electronics {voder, pyramid, loral}!kontron!brad
Mountain View, CAdube@csd2.UUCP (Tom Dube) (02/27/86)
Last year, I played around with a package called "mu-MATH / mu-SYMB". mu-SYMB was a symbolic language (something like LISP), and mu-MATH was a symbolic math computation package written in mu-SYMB (source provided). This small program performed quite well for equation solving. I've been using MACSYMA lately, and the flavor of the manipulations seems quite similar. I believe the cost of the "mu-MATH" package for the PC was about $400. I don't remember who was marketing it, or if it is available for other systems. A former work-mate had ordered the package through an ad in BYTE. You should be able to find a reference through that magazine.
jp@lanl.ARPA (James Potter) (02/27/86)
Try muMATH by The Soft Warehouse. P.O. Box 11174, Honolulu, HI,96828 It runs on a generic MSDOS machine. A CP/M versionis also available, but there are restrictions because of the 64K memory limit. I have used muMATH for symbolic matrix manipulation in network theory (electrical networks) and found it to be as useful as MACSYMA. I don't remember the current price, but it is also available through MicroSoft call 800-426-9400 for name of nearest dealer. There is some user support through a newsletter, also. Jim Potter jp@lanl.arpa
rothstei%kentvax.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA (Michael Rothstein) (03/03/86)
----forwarded message --
Received: from CSNET-RELAY.ARPA (csnet-pdn-gw.arpa) by rand-unix.ARPA; Sun, 2 Mar 86 17:49:51 pst
Message-Id: <8603030149.AA20970@rand-unix.ARPA>
Received: from kentvax by csnet-relay.csnet id aa09858; 2 Mar 86 20:45 EST
Received: by kentvax.CSNET (4.12/4.7)
id AA04055; Sun, 2 Mar 86 12:07:05 est
Date: Sun, 2 Mar 86 12:07:05 est
From: Michael Rothstein <rothstei%kentvax.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA>
To: amdahl!nsc!voder!kontron!brad@hplabs.arpa, netnews@rand-unix.ARPA
Subject: Re: Wanted: info. on "affordable" symbolic math systems
This is a partial list of currently widely available
Computer Algebra systems I know about:
MACSYMA (only sources I know about are Symbolics and NESC)
muMATH
muMATH is a computer Algebra system developed for use
on microcomputers; it currently runs on IBM-PC & clones
with MS-DOS, CP/M-80 machines, Apple II and TRS-80.
Though more limited in power than the other systems on
this list, it may, nevertheless prove to be worthwhile
for some small computations. Its capabilities include
integration (through pattern matching), solution of
trigonometric identities and a simple solve package.
It is available through:
The Soft Warehouse
P. O. Box 11174
Honolulu, Hawaii 96828
REDUCE
REDUCE is one of the more widely available Computer
Algebra systems: there are versions for IBM, UNIVAC,
CDC and Burroughs mainframes, DEC 10, DEC 20, VAX (both
UNIX and VMS), HP-9836, Appollo and others. It is
available through:
Dr. Anthony C. Hearn
The Rand Corporation
1700 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90402
Note, though, that a compatible version of Lisp will
also have to be obtained: though chances are that you
will have to contact the University of Utah, please
contact Dr. Hearn first with information regarding your
machine.
MAPLE is a package developed at the University of Waterloo
(of WatFIV fame) and is still under development.
It is available from:
Symbolic Computation Group
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waterloo,
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1
Attention: B. L. Leong
Regarding your other question, I cannot really help
you: some systems, in some packages, have a flag which will
output intermediate results: off-hand I recall the power-
series package in MACSYMA and the factoring and integration
packages in REDUCE which also provide quite readable output
in trace mode. Other than that, I don't know.
Hope this information is useful,
Michael Rothstein (rothstei@kentvax)
------- End of Forwarded MessageVM03D4%WVNVM.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU (03/06/86)
============== From: <VM03D4%WVNVM.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU> Received: from WISCVM.WISC.EDU by rand-unix.ARPA; Mon, 3 Mar 86 11:50:18 pst Message-Id: <8603031950.AA03521@rand-unix.ARPA> Received: from (MAILER)WVNVM.BITNET by WISCVM.WISC.EDU on 03/03/86 at 13:47:04 CST Received: by WVNVM (Mailer X1.23) id 7016; Mon, 03 Mar 86 14:44:51 EST Date: 3 March 1986 14:24:53 EST Subject: Re: affordable symbolic math systems muMATH-muSIMP 83 is available from SOFT WAREHOUSE and from MICROSOFT. Cost is $300 for MS DOS version and $250 for CPM version. It provides a TRACE capability for showing what the system does, but documentation on this is rather skimpy. I am publishing a series of short articles in ACCESS ( Journal of Microcomputer Applications ) describing the system. I have gone through differentiation. Dave Stoutmeyer of the SOFT WAREHOUSE has also written PICOMATH, a very small systemwhich is in BASIC and does trigonometric and polynomial manipulations. It is probably of more interest in showing how a Computer Algebra system works than for serious work. William Squire Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering West Virginia University