Diff for "OSCAS"

This page will survey open source computer algebra systems (OSCAS's). Some of this may appear as columns in CCA.

A computer algebra system (CAS) is a mathematical software package capable of symbolic manipulation. The commercial CAS industry is big business. Few people know more about the CAS industry than Darren McIntyre, VP of Worldwide Sales at Maplesoft. He estimates the worldwide yearly expenditures on computer algebra (buying licenses, employee salaries, and so on) is at least $ 600 million. Clients include not just students and universities, but diverse industries who often find that a CAS is a convenient programming environment to model industrial problems.

The terrain

Omitted is CAFE (Computer Algebra and Functional Equations), a group writing a collection of CAS libraries (see CAFE). They appear to be written in Aldor and Maple by (the late) Manuel Bronstein. I (=David Joyner) cannot determine the license (if any) they are released under. I am also unsure if the "open source" licenses of LiDIA, MAS, and Scilab are compatible with the above-mentioned open source definition. Several of these are under very active development and some of these are essentially dead. Two other sources of information are the Computer algebra handbook GKW] and the internet sites CA].

In any case, we see from this table that there are a lot of open source computer algebra systems out there. Some of these are special purpose (such as Symmetrica) and others are general purpose (such as Axiom). We shall start by surveying Maxima, a general purpose CAS.

• Maxima_as_an_OSCAS

• Axiom_as_an_OSCAS