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Open Source Symbolic Math Packages?

Posted by Cliff on from the here-we-go-again dept.

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?

3 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Google? by mschaef · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes, maxima...

    http://maxima.sourceforge.net/

    or giac...
    http://www-fourier.ujf-grenoble.fr/~parisse/englis h.html

    (giac, interestingly enough, runs on PDA's for a mobile solution...)

    If you haven't found open source CAS, you haven't really looked...

  2. Re:Please explain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wow, what year is it? People still don't understand open source software?

    Well, here's how it would work. People don't write open source software for OTHER PEOPLE, they write it for themselves.

    Somebody needs symbolic math package, but doesn't want to pay for the expensive versions. Unlike yourself, he reasons that like any complex system, a symbolic math package can be broken down into simpler subsets that maybe he can write himself.

    Or maybe, he just wants to try writing it.

    Or maybe he reads your post and considers it a challenge.

    After a while, he gets it working and it solves his particular problem. Then he puts it on his web site and waits for open source magic to take over. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. But it doesn't cost him anything to try, after all, he's already solved his particular problem.

    And that boys and girls, is how open source software is born.

  3. Depends exactly what you're doing.. by kongtomorrow · · Score: 5, Informative

    For commutative algebra, for example, there's Macaulay2.