This is one of the great things about SAGE -- you have a uniform way of dealing with various constructs. Usually SAGE will just choose automatically some algorithm for doing things, but you have the option of asking to use an explicit algorithm (say if you find that Magma does best on this, and you have Magma installed -- you may explicitly invoke a Magma function. SAGE takes care of converting from its internal format to Magma's and back again "under the covers"). And since it uses a mainstream (and very well developed) programming language Python -- you don't have to deal with learning yet another language (I happen to like Python a lot and have used it quite heavily for the past 5 years or so, so I was really happy when SAGE came along). Victor On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 10:26 AM, Fred lunnon <fred.lunnon@gmail.com> wrote:
On 5/29/08, Joerg Arndt <arndt@jjj.de> wrote:
SAGE: Open Source Mathematics Software http://www.sagemath.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_for_Algebra_and_Geometry_Experimentati...
comes at a very reasonable price: zero
SAGE has some mechanism to permit simultaneous access to a raft of different systems, including MAGMA (if installed), and PARI etc (incorporated in the download). I can't get much of a grip on how effectively this arrangement might work in practice --- has anybody here actually tried it out?
I have found MAGMA robust and efficient for the specialised areas it addresses. But its strong typing induces a steep learning curve: for adults only! Also it runs two orders of magnitude faster on a recent high-end PC than on a G4 Mac --- similar discrepancies may well arise with other CAS, though I doubt if they're so pronounced!
Fred Lunnon
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