>From: Ellick Chan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: Re: [Cooker] Maxima and Mandrake RPM?
>Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2000 00:02:56 -0500 (CDT)
>
>
>I'm interested in using a symbolic integrator, and am already using mupad,
>www.sciface.com. How does the stuff in mupad work compared to Maxima? I'm
>also aware that Wolfram has a Mathematica for Linux, but am not in the
>mood to spend the money for it.
>
I couldn't say, since I've never actually been able to use maxima on my
machine (can't get it to compile, arrrrgh!) and I'm loath to use Mupad
because they make you register and all that crap. (Hey, I owe all my
computer's functionality to open source software. Might as well support the
community. :-) Plus, on principle, I always worry about what some lawyer
might define as "academic vs. commercial use" - I much prefer not to have
any restrictions on use.) I have heard good things about maxima, but I
haven't heard much at all about Mupad, beyond people acknowledging it's
existance. I have used Mathematica, which kicks butt, but has a license
which is not only restrictive, but mucho dinero. ($1500 for the full
version, something like $150 for the student version which expires after you
are no longer a student and is restricted in use and a few features. :-(
Mathematica is in fact the most expensive license on any software I am aware
of in our department.) The reason I suggest maxima be included was because
it is the only program I know of which makes any claims about being able to
do symbolic integration and is fully open source. (GPL) I suspect, if it
were distributed as RPM, it might begin to develop more of a following, but
that is only me talking. I'd try to make an RPM myself, but I don't have the
time now to learn enough to have a hope of finding the compile problem and
then making an RPM. (Blasted homework...) Anyway, that was the reasoning.
_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.
Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
http://profiles.msn.com.
