SHULL@WHARTON.UPENN.EDU (10/16/87)
For those of you who echo my query about when MACSYMA (from Symbolics)
would be available on Apollos (circa. May 1987), I recently found that
this version is now shipping. For information, I refer you to:
Computer Aided Mathematics Group
Symbolics, Inc.
Eleven Cambridge Center
Cambridge, MA 02142
Or, call (800) 622-7962 and ask to speak with an account representative.
Unfortunately, I do not yet have MACSYMA on my system. This does however
allow me to make the following disclaimer: "I have no connection of any
nature with Symbolics."
Good luck!
-Chris
Christopher E. Shull
Decision Sciences Department
The Wharton School shull@wharton.upenn.edu
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6366 215/898-5930
If it ain't broke, don't fix it!dennis@PEANUTS.NOSC.MIL (Dennis Cottel) (10/16/87)
We were interested in MACSYMA, but when the prices arrived in the mail, our users reconsidered: Node license: $8,250 Basic service: $1,740/year Full service: $2,940/year (Basic + 2 hours telephone assistance/month) Does it really cost this much to provide a product for an Apollo-sized market? That's more than a basic DN3000 costs us in the first place. Software prices are one of the reasons people here consider buying PC-based systems over Apollos. Now, if we could buy one license that could be used by anyone on the ring when they needed to (assuming no one else was using it at the time), then the $8K might seem possible. At least then you could share the cost among potential users. Dennis Cottel Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego, CA 92152 (619) 225-2406 dennis@nosc.MIL sdcsvax!noscvax!dennis
krowitz@mit-richter.MIT.EDU (David Krowitz) (10/16/87)
The problem with MACSYMA is that MIT sold an exclusive license for the software to Symbolics, the lisp machine manufacturer. They were *very* slow in porting the software to other machines (it was already available for the DEC 10/20 on which is was developed) since they would prefer to sell you a lisp machine. It is an execellent pieces of software, but it is overpriced. If you have a VAX/VMS system you should be able to get a copy of MACSYMA from the national software center, or DOE (or someone like that in the government). DOE paid MIT to port MACSYMA onto the VAX (seperately from the Symbolics deal) so they own a copy which they redistribute. There are some competing packages written in C. Unfortunately, I can't remember their names offhand. Maybe someone else can recall them? -- David Krowitz mit-erl!mit-kermit!krowitz@eddie.mit.edu mit-erl!mit-kermit!krowitz@mit-eddie.arpa krowitz@mit-mc.arpa (in order of decreasing preference)