[math-fun] Computer Algebra Systems
Folks, I'll apologise straight away for raising a topic which does not really belong here. And my first question is: are there any general CAS discussion groups around any more out there? I currently run Maple and Magma on an Apple G4 Powerbook laptop, which I'm thinking shortly of superseding with maybe a Pro desktop box. What I'm looking for is some guidance about whether this is a good idea from the point of view of maintaining a CAS engine. Bill Gosper previously observed that there were serious issues with all extant systems. Bear with me while I outline a selection of those I labour under at the moment. I use Maple version 9. I daren't ever update Quicktime (Apple video viewer) because newer versions disable the Maple loader (don't ask!). The online Maple help doesn't --- although it did work on a PC I also once used, and it does work on version 10. Version 9 is notoriously glitchy, but the infernal licensing software on version 10 (and 11 presumably) has banjaxed me just before a presentation so often that I flatly refuse ever to have anything to do with it again. Second question: would Maple version 12 on a current Mac be any improvement in these and other respects? I also use Magma. On a modern PC, Magma is seriously fast; on an Apple under OS X 3.9, it is horribly crippled. One reason for this appears to be that the version of gcc (C-compiler) as customised by Apple is unable to compile the GMP multi-precision package used by Magma ... Oh, and by the way, it's a waste of time spending an evening trying to install any gcc updates, because an assembler environment enquiry required is missimg; and the link GNU give for supplying same is broken --- or was last time I tried, and I'm not in any hurry to *$£@?!% well try again ... Third question: have Apple yet managed to install a C compiler which actually compiles GMP? I'd be grateful to hear from any others who have wrestled with such questions in the recent past! Fred Lunnon
Fred's questions are not off topic. We don't want to turn into a forum for (only) bug reports and griping at Apple. But these are (some of) the tools of our trade, and it's appropriate that they get discussed from time to time. For those replying to Fred, consider whether your notes are useful to the group, or are more likely to just address his specific difficulties. General bashing of companies is a waste of our attention. Information about relevant software packages is more germane. Rich ------------------ Quoting Fred lunnon <fred.lunnon@gmail.com>:
Folks, I'll apologise straight away for raising a topic which does not really belong here.
And my first question is: are there any general CAS discussion groups around any more out there?
I currently run Maple and Magma on an Apple G4 Powerbook laptop, which I'm thinking shortly of superseding with maybe a Pro desktop box. What I'm looking for is some guidance about whether this is a good idea from the point of view of maintaining a CAS engine.
Bill Gosper previously observed that there were serious issues with all extant systems. Bear with me while I outline a selection of those I labour under at the moment.
I use Maple version 9. I daren't ever update Quicktime (Apple video viewer) because newer versions disable the Maple loader (don't ask!). The online Maple help doesn't --- although it did work on a PC I also once used, and it does work on version 10. Version 9 is notoriously glitchy, but the infernal licensing software on version 10 (and 11 presumably) has banjaxed me just before a presentation so often that I flatly refuse ever to have anything to do with it again.
Second question: would Maple version 12 on a current Mac be any improvement in these and other respects?
I also use Magma. On a modern PC, Magma is seriously fast; on an Apple under OS X 3.9, it is horribly crippled. One reason for this appears to be that the version of gcc (C-compiler) as customised by Apple is unable to compile the GMP multi-precision package used by Magma ... Oh, and by the way, it's a waste of time spending an evening trying to install any gcc updates, because an assembler environment enquiry required is missimg; and the link GNU give for supplying same is broken --- or was last time I tried, and I'm not in any hurry to *$£@?!% well try again ...
Third question: have Apple yet managed to install a C compiler which actually compiles GMP?
I'd be grateful to hear from any others who have wrestled with such questions in the recent past! Fred Lunnon
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I'll toss in a mention of a geometric algebra system: http://www.geometryexpressions.com/ It has a powerful constraint system, and updates constructions algebraically on the fly. If you write to them with a good story, and promise to post some of your constructions publicly, you can get a good deal on the price. (Sending a good story to either Wolfram Research or Maplesoft also gets a good discount, I've learned from experience.). Ed Pegg Jr
________________________________ (Sending a good story to either Wolfram Research or Maplesoft also gets a good discount, I've learned from experience.). Ed Pegg Jr _______________________________________________ The student edition of Maple was about $165 including shipping and CA tax. You have to provide a school and student ID number. Maple 9, running under windows 2000, was absolutely terrible, often seizing up and being unresponsive to the keyboard. I skipped the Maple 10 upgrade, but Maple 11 was better. I 'm now running Maple 12 under Ubuntu Linux, and I'm quite pleased. There was an unresponsiveness problem at startup that was resolved with Maple's tech support. It required downloading a later version of Java, and I can provide the details. For hardware, I have the Breeze computer from ZaReason ( http://www.zareason.com ), and I'm very happy with it. Gene
I got a half-price deal (about $1250) for Mathematica 6 by telling them I'm retired. (True!) But I found out that the deal was available only by happening to ask about a discount at the Jan. 2008 math meeting in San Diego. Steve Gray -----Original Message----- From: math-fun-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:math-fun-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Eugene Salamin Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 8:53 AM To: math-fun@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [math-fun] Computer Algebra Systems ________________________________ (Sending a good story to either Wolfram Research or Maplesoft also gets a good discount, I've learned from experience.). Ed Pegg Jr _______________________________________________ The student edition of Maple was about $165 including shipping and CA tax. You have to provide a school and student ID number. Maple 9, running under windows 2000, was absolutely terrible, often seizing up and being unresponsive to the keyboard. I skipped the Maple 10 upgrade, but Maple 11 was better. I 'm now running Maple 12 under Ubuntu Linux, and I'm quite pleased. There was an unresponsiveness problem at startup that was resolved with Maple's tech support. It required downloading a later version of Java, and I can provide the details. For hardware, I have the Breeze computer from ZaReason ( http://www.zareason.com ), and I'm very happy with it. Gene _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
I don't use computer algebra systems myself, but I recently reconnected with a coauthor who's now working on Sage: http://www.sagemath.org/ I think I've seen that one mentioned here before, but let me know if you have any interest in being connected with one of the developers.
And my first question is: are there any general CAS discussion groups around any more out there?
sci.math.symbolic
Second question: would Maple version 12 on a current Mac be any improvement in these and other respects?
I don't have a personal experience, but AFAICT yes. It is not perfect, the classic interface is missing, but some Java issues were fixed. There is a new update, Maple 12.01 which fixes a few more issues.
Third question: have Apple yet managed to install a C compiler which actually compiles GMP?
Yes, SAGE (available from http://www.sagemath.org/ ) includes GMP, and it works well on Mac - William Stein has Mac on his laptops. Alec Mihailovs
participants (7)
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Alec Mihailovs -
Eugene Salamin -
Fred lunnon -
Jason -
rcs＠xmission.com -
Stephen Gray -
Xeipon