buyskes@lafcol.UUCP (Steven Buyske) (08/03/89)
I'm looking for a fairly simple (and inexpensive) Macintosh program to help my students learn matrix manipulations. All I want them to be able to do would be row operations, but with non-trivial matrices (i.e., bigger than 3x3, not nice numbers). I know about APL and some fancy packages, but is there something simple that doesn't take much time to learn? I'm thinking of something like 1)enter a matrix, 2) select a row, 3) drag it onto another row, 4) enter the multiple of the first row to be added to the second row, 5) and so on. Any pointers? Steve Buyske uucp : rutgers!lehi3b15!lafcol!buyskes Mathematics Department Bitnet : BUYSKES@LAFAYETT Lafayette College Easton, PA 18042
ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu (Lee Dickey) (08/15/89)
In article <1377@lafcol.UUCP> buyskes@lafcol.UUCP (Steven Buyske) writes: > I'm looking for a fairly simple (and inexpensive) Macintosh >program to help my students learn matrix manipulations. All I want them >to be able to do would be row operations, but with non-trivial matrices >(i.e., bigger than 3x3, not nice numbers). I know about APL and some >fancy packages, but is there something simple that doesn't take much >time to learn? I'm thinking of something like 1)enter a matrix, >2) select a row, 3) drag it onto another row, 4) enter the multiple >of the first row to be added to the second row, 5) and so on. >Any pointers? There is a set of APL functions designed to do just what you want. They are simple and take no time to learn. They appear in a lovely article called "APL and Linear Algebra" on page 78 of "APL as a Tool of Thought III", the proceedings of the Third Annual Professional Development Seminar sponsored by the New York Local Chapter of the Special Interest Group on APL. There is an excellent APL called APL.68000 that comes in two versions for the Mac and sells for a modest price. It can be obtained from Spencer Organization Inc. of Westwood NJ. I am a satisfied user of APL.68000 and have no financial interest in it. -- L. J. Dickey, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo. ljdickey@water.UWaterloo.ca ljdickey@water.BITNET ljdickey@water.UUCP ..!uunet!watmath!water!ljdickey ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu