Re: Debian packages similar to mathematica or mathlab ?

[Gerard Robin <jag.robin18@wanadoo.fr>]

On Tue, Feb 01, 2005 at 04:20:58PM +0100, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> On 2005-01-18 13:13:24 +0100, Gerard Robin wrote:
> > On Tue, Jan 18, 2005 at 08:54:39AM +0100, Bob Alexander wrote:
> > > For now I only need some basic stuff to quickly check arithmetic and 
> > > algebraic computations ... very simple stuff like:
> > > 
> > > (17^2-5^3)/(17+3*2^3)*((18^2/9^2+(13-4*3^2:6)^2-2*(8^2-2*3*7)+1))/5
> > 
> > try bc
> 
> Do you mean that bc can work on rational numbers?

bc works with the expression (bc -l)

(17^2-5^3)/(17+3*2^3)*((18^2/9^2+(13-4*3^2/6)^2-2*(8^2-2*3*7)+1))/5
                                          ^ 
                                     : was a typo

But I am amazing of your question whereas bc, in general, gives the result 
under a periodical decimal form of writing and it's possible to write a 
program, in C, which put the result of bc in the forme N/D N integer, 
D integer !=0.

maxima do all the work but:

bc:
Installed-Size: 184 kb
Version: 1.06-17

maxima:
Installed-Size: 24480 kb
Version: 5.9.1-7

maxima works like you want, but compare 184 kb with 24480 kb
(bc is minima and maxima is maxima :-))

but with maxima try:

factor(x^2 - 5);

?


-- 
Gérard