On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 9:14 AM, Jason Grout <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > In-Jae,
Jason, Very nice email. I posted some of it to my blog: sagemath.blogspot.com > > I'm forwarding my reply to sage-support and sage-edu, two mailing lists > that are dedicated to helping people use Sage. To others on the list: > please feel free to respond to "Why do I use Sage over (or with) other > commercial software" and how you use Sage in teaching. > > > Kim, In-Jae wrote: >> Hello Jason, >> >> I have a question on SAGE. >> Have you used SAGE for undergrad or grad courses? >> > > Yes, both. I am currently using it in Calc 2 and differential equations > for in-class calculations, plots, etc. I am in the process of setting > up a math department sage server, which will then have student accounts > and they will be able to do their work on the server, if they want. I > will also distribute some in-class notes on the server and work out some > questions that students ask on the server. > > > >> If you have, could you let me know for what courses you used, and how you >> used it in those courses? >> > I've used it in calc 2, calc 3, linear algebra, differential equations, > and an early graduate research course. I am preparing a talk on our > experiences using it in the graduate course. Basically, we used it to > collaboratively write programs that calculated things about the minimum > rank problem. There were several unique things about Sage that made it > particularly suited for this, more than other commercial software > programs. My abstract is: > > This talk will discuss the use of Sage in a course designed to involve > first and second-year graduate students in research. In this case, > none of the students or the professor had had prior experience with > Sage. Students collaborated using Sage and the included NetworkX > package to investigate the minimum rank problem in combinatorial > matrix theory. Various features of Sage (e.g., the included NetworkX > package, the N.I.C.E. graph automorphism functionality, the online > notebook interface, Cython integration, etc.) made Sage more useful > than other commercial math software that was tried. In addition, the > free nature of Sage made it more desirable for sharing research with > other mathematicians since the mathematicians working on the problem > do not all have access to the same commercial software. The results > and source code of the research will be submitted as a paper soon. > After the course, several students are continuing to use Sage in their > other courses and one is planning to use Sage heavily in her masters > thesis. > > > >> Could you also give me a brief statemnet for strength of SAGE compared to >> Mathematica or Maple? >> > > It depends on the area, so you'll have to give me an area to get a more > specific answer. In general, Sage has somewhat weaker general symbolic > capabilities (i.e., integrals, etc.) than mathematica or maple (though > usually this does not seem to be a problem in undergraduate-level > problems). It has *much* stronger number theory functionality. Things > are object-oriented in Sage and Sage understands mathematical structures > and how they relate (using category theory). For example, Sage knows > what a vector space is, what a finite field is, etc. You can actually > create a finite field or an extension of the rationals and ask questions > about it. You can create a polynomial ring over a field and then just > work with it. > > Sage is also generally faster than either Mathematica or Maple, in my > experience. > > The web interface to Sage is a huge plus to Sage over mathematica and > maple. Of course, being free and open-source is something that is > unmatched in either Mathematica or Maple; that is a very important point > that is sometimes overlooked. You can literally see what is going on > inside of Sage, where you have to guess what is happening in Mathematica > or Maple. > > One reason that Sage was chosen for an AIM workshop on helping > undergraduate research was that the participants didn't have a common > computational system (i.e., some had access to Mathematica, some had > access to Maple, some had access to neither). They could use Sage > because it was free, whereas it would have been problematic to insist > that every person somehow acquire access to a specific piece of > commercial software. Related to this, I had a student complain on my > course evaluations about me using Mathematica in class because it is > hard for our students here to have access to Mathematica, and they would > have to pay in order to use it at home, etc. > > If you are teaching future secondary ed teachers, then they most likely > will not have access to Maple or Mathematica when they are teaching high > school because of the cost. However, they *will* have access to Sage, > so using Sage directly benefits their future students because whatever > they learn can be used in their high school classes. > > Another huge plus to Sage, in my eyes, is that it is based on one of the > most prevalent and easiest-to-use computer languages around, Python. > Students that learn to use Mathematica and Maple learn a language that > they, in most likelyhood, will never use once they graduate. However, > Python is used in many, many industries, so their python knowledge from > using Sage is directly applicable later on. > > Those are a few things that came to my mind right away. After some time > thinking about it, I probably will have other things that make Sage more > effective for me than other commercial software. > > Thanks, > > Jason > > > > > -- William Stein Associate Professor of Mathematics University of Washington http://wstein.org --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-edu" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-edu?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
