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Open Source Symbolic Math Packages?
3Suns asks: "There are many proprietary symbolic mathematics suites available, including Mathcad, Mathematica, and Maple. Strangely, I can't find a single free software project with similar functionality. These programs are as ubiquitous in universities and engineering companies as they are expensive. Given the deep roots of open-source in higher education, what can explain the lack of free/open-source mathematics software?" We last addressed this question three
years ago, but a lot can change in that time. Has it?
Perhaps you should use Google sometime?
Never heard of Maxima, Mupad, Octave, Scilab?
Maxima and Axiom are the heavy hitters. Good luck getting Axiom to build.
There are some others: I think there's one in Scheme and I think YACAS comes with a lot of Linux distributions but I've never tried it.
There is a big difference here. Operating systems are something everyone who uses computers would deal with. A great deal more people that want to program open source are going to program something for an operating system (be it the kernel, device drivers, etc.), then something for a much narrower audience.
I'm not saying an open source Mathematica type software package wouldn't be nice, but there isn't the same drive for it as for an OS. There are already software packages that run on UNIX/Linux. They aren't freely available, but if you are in Academia, or in industry you probably have access to a package like this already.
For commutative algebra, for example, there's Macaulay2.
Maxima would probably be your best bet
It is an implementation of Macsyma written in LISP and will compile and run fairly well on almost any machine
The syntax is easy to learn and the program is fairly powerful yet approachable
Even if it's not exactly what you're looking for, it is an extremely valuable tool
Singular is really good for commutative algebra.
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The fact that most universities and engineering copmanies have these packages readily available is probably why a big reason why open source alternatives have not shown up.
This comment was modded "insightful". Unfortunately it is not true. Depending on what you want to do, there are some highly specialized, hardcore symbolic programs which make Maple, Mathematica, and Mathcad seem like toys. Really, those commercial apps just give you a smorgasboard of basic functions and formulas so as to be considered useful to all. Once you start doing something more serious, you might drop them completely (unless you use their programming languages). If all you're looking for is some general purpose thingie which is a clone of the very popular commercial apps, try the options others already suggested. One I don't think has been mentioned so far is Scilab, which seems to look like Matlab, and looks pretty extensive, though I've never used it. And by the way, the reason why all the specialized programs exist is because scientists and mathematicians find commercial apps largely inadequate for their needs. What's so funny is that this largely parallels the Windows vs. Linux situation-- the commercial players make general purpose, easy-to-use programs which are very pretty and have lots of ohhhhh-ahhhhhh eye-popping features that are very useful for powerpoint presentations.
Given the deep roots of open-source in higher education, what can explain the lack of free/open-source mathematics software?
There is not, nor will there ever be, a lack of free mathematics software. Is there a lack of free/open source "Linux software"? Yes, but only if you ask a news reporter or MS apologist. C'mon man, Google Directory lists a good deal of free stuff here. You just forgot to look. Anyway, I'm sure this was covered on Slashdot as recently as last year.
Handling math isn't too far off from compiler design, you are just interpreting syntax and semantics and manipulating symbols in an intelligent manner.
Numerical math, yes. Symbolic math is far more complicated. Integration, for example, requires the Risch integration algorithm, which is quite non-trivial; computing polynomial GCDs has been the subject of dozens and dozens of papers.
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jbolden -thats numerical computing.
There are probably a single digit number of universities in North America with a computer algebra/symbolic computing course.
See for example, GAP, or Macaulay2.