|
|
Subscribe / Log in / New account

Symbolic mathematics on Linux

Symbolic mathematics on Linux

Posted Jan 14, 2017 3:35 UTC (Sat) by jondo (guest, #69852)
Parent article: Symbolic mathematics on Linux

For teaching first semester math at my university, I evaluated switching from Mathematica to free/libre math software. I concentrated on wxMaxima, SymPy and Sage. Many areas worked fine in all three systems, but for the moment we stayed with Mathematica. Some observations:

SageMath calls Maxima to solve inequalities, but both systems have no easy way to fully simplify the solutions:
The code
> sage: maxima_calculus("domain: real")
> solve(abs((2*x-2)/(x-5)) <= 2/3, x)
gives
> [[x == -1], [x == 2], [x == 1], [1 < x, x < 2], [-1 < x, x < 1]]
instead of
> [[-1 <= x, x <= 2]] .
(Of course I could just hand out a self-written simplification function, but only for SageMath - my Lisp-fu has rusted since the 90s.)

SymPy deals well with this inequality (https://github.com/sympy/sympy/issues/9565), but the used 'solveset' function is still in the works.

Teaching Python would be a nice side effect, but Sage is huge and unwieldy to distribute, and I don't want to offer it as "SAASS", while SymPy alone cannot compute some typical integrals (e.g. of exp(x)*sqrt(1+exp(2*x))), because the necessary Risch algorithm is only partially implemented there.

Also I saw some problems with easy differential equations, but I didn't have a closer look.

Hmm ...
Now I tested the inequality and the integral in GeoGebra (with the embedded Giac system), and both worked!
See https://ggbm.at/xS6RDn4N for the web version, but beware of a massive Javascript attack.
Maybe that's the way to go ...


to post comments

Symbolic mathematics on Linux

Posted Jan 14, 2017 20:51 UTC (Sat) by leephillips (subscriber, #100450) [Link]

Interesting information. It's clear that there is no one perfect CAS. By the way, maxima seems to handle your integral, as well.

Symbolic mathematics on Linux

Posted Jan 23, 2019 13:34 UTC (Wed) by jondo (guest, #69852) [Link]

However, GeoGebra concedes that it might not be free software:

> Please note that GeoGebra as a complete software program would
> probably not be considered "free" software according to the
> definition of that term which is used by the Free Software
> Foundation. This is because the restrictions on commercial use that
> apply to the GeoGebra installers, web services and language files
> add-ons might be seen to be a restriction on the software as a whole
> (thus making it "non-free"), even though the GeoGebra source code is
> made available under the GNU General Public License without
> restriction.
(source: https://www.geogebra.org/license)

It will get interesting in case anyone ever tried to fork GeoGebra. I found one case of someone announcing a modified redistribution, but I don't think they succeeded: https://github.com/geogebra/geogebra/pull/5 .


Copyright © 2025, Eklektix, Inc.
Comments and public postings are copyrighted by their creators.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds