On Thu, Nov 17, 2005 at 11:42:14AM -0500, Aaron M. Ucko wrote: > They're all geared towards somewhat different ends, so you might want > to play with several and see what works best for your project. In > particular, be advised that only some of them have decent support for > symbolic integration -- namely, axiom, maxima, and yacas (though ginac > and mathomatic also handle easy cases). I have been very impressed with Maxima and Axiom. I also own Maple 9.5. If you are looking for something easy with lots of friendly documentation and examples for students, I highly recommend Maple. I have tried trials of Mathematica also, and I think Mathematica would be better if you needed to do big number arithmetic; I froze Maple when computing 2^24036583-1, but Mathematica was fine. Maple offers a CD with versions for Windows, Linux, and Mac and has a license that allows a student to continue to use it after she graduates. Mathematica has a download for Linux or Windows or Mac and prohibits the use of student editions after full-time student status ends. I am trying to use free software now, however, since it will be available on more computers where I might want to use it. I think you can't go very wrong with Maxima, Axiom, or Yacas. Good luck. -- Steven Wheelwright sjwheel@gmail.com It's never not now. PGP Fingerprint: 809E 9E32 907D 7619 2BED 8764 108D F31C 8927 1E3F
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