Teaching differential equations with Maxima

Dear Wolfgang,

Many thanks again for your help and support.

My present impression is now clear that I have at first to test and
understand these files before proceeding to asking for a permission
for distribution by the authors.

I am also grateful to you for your having brought to my
attention the book


----- Original Message -----
From: "Wolfgang Jenkner" <wjenkner at inode>
To: "Nikolaos I. Ioakimidis" <ioakimidis@otenet.gr>
Cc: <maxima@mail.ma.utexas.edu>
Sent: Saturday, February 08, 2003 7:14 PM
Subject: Re: [Maxima] Teaching differential equations with Maxima


>
> "Nikolaos I. Ioakimidis" <ioakimidis@otenet.gr> writes
>
> > > `Of course, those packages were written for the commercial
> > > Macsyma . . .'
> >
> > which is, to be sincere, disappointing for me since it forbids me
> > to distribute these files to my students, since they belong to the
> > commercial Macsyma. I have also been able to verify in some
> > of them not only the Copyright sign by the authors prohibiting
> > reproduction, but also the additional sign.
> >
> > MACSYMA copyright and trademark: Macsyma, Inc.,
> > Arlington, Ma, USA
>
> The file
>
> ftp://ftp.mines.colorado.edu/pub/papers/math_cs_dept/software/readme.now
>
> states that the following form of copyright applies to all packages in
> the sub-directories:
>
>          You are welcome to use any of the software packages free of
>          charge for scientific work, with acknowledgement of the
>          developers and proper reference to either our research papers
>          or to the software, or to both.
>
>          The software may not be reproduced or sold without written
>          consent of the authors (Copyright 1995-2002).
>
> I think that your intended use qualifies as `scientific work' (even if
> you described it mainly as a didactic effort).  I am a bit puzzled
> about the `may not be reproduced', though, since down-loading (which
> clearly is allowed for this form of use) is also a form of
> reproduction, after all.
>
> In my opinion, the Macsyma copyright and trademark notice you cite
> applies only to the Macsyma program itself and not to the packages.
>
> As Stavros has already remarked, by `written for Macsyma' I only meant
> that these files might contain certain syntactical constructs or refer
> to certain features which are not available in Maxima.  Hence my
> surprise that at least the one test case I tried worked without
> further ado.
>
> I never used a commercial Macsyma, so I don't know where serious
> compatibility issues are most likely to arise.  On the other hand, I
> do have a (very good) book called `Macsyma Version 2' (by Stefan Braun
> and Harald Häuser, Addison-Wesley 1995, in German) and, except for the
> graphical user interface, I am not aware of Maxima lacking any major
> feature they describe.  So I am rather optimistic about portability.
>
> Wolfgang
>
>