USE OF MAXIMA AND XMAXIMA IN PATRAS, GREECE

Dear Professor --

	I being just a Calculus student myself, run the risk of being utterly
arrogant by giving you "advice."

	But I was very empathic towards your story, as I study in Brazil. I
would imagine that a department in Greece does not have the money for a
full university license of a CAS. In my university, a certain software
company wanted to charge R$ 400,000.00, which at the time amounted to
more than US$ 250,000.00, the kind of money we don't have for just one
software license...It might seem ridiculous for some in the U.S., when
in fact it's sad...

	Although your asking for Windows executables is understandable, I would
hope to persuade you to use Free/libre Software. I haven't used Windows
for 3 years now. I find that I have everything I need in Debian
GNU/Linux. It has 9,000 binary software packages. Maintance is a breeze,
all you do is type "apt-get update" and "apt-get upgrade" and *all* the
weeks software fixes in bugs and securities will be updated and upgraded
in your system in an integrated fashion. Software doesn't brake and the
system doesn't crash.

	With regards to Maxima, I find that one of the most important things
lacking in Maxima is simple documentation on how to use formulas and
such, from the user's perspective. I feel that if you can produce that
using the teacher's pespective, with all the problems that will come up
in the classroom, then Maxima and the community will benefit greatly.

	Best regards,

	Henry Lenzi





Em Sáb, 2002-09-07 às 05:10, Nikolaos I. Ioakimidis escreveu:
> Dear Colleagues, 
> 
> My name is Nikolaos I. Ioakimidis and I work at the School of
> Engineering of the University of Patras, Greece. My e-mail
> address is
> 
> ioakimidis@otenet.gr
> 
> My postal work address is
> 
> Nikolaos I. Ioakimidis
> Department of Engineering Sciences
> School of Engineering
> University of Patras
> GR-265.04  Rion, Patras
> G R E E C E
> 
> Very recently, I have "discovered" Maxima and I plan to officially
> use it in my courses (simultaneously with Mathematica) during 
> the present Academic year to begin soon. The advantages of
> Maxima are (i) its well-known power, (ii) the availability of the