Differences between Maxima and Macsyma and GPL vs. commercial version

Dear Judah, 
Dear Colleagues,

I must agree with Judah's comments below: in my opinion, they are 
correct.

With respect to the Mathematica user's manual comment by Judah:

> I'd add: (4) a very high quality user's manual. Something for us to take
> notice of.

I would like to add my very recent personal experience with Maxima.
It's (like an) anecdote:

I have taught the students (through simple notes) to use the list-related
commands first, last, part, etc. and, next, I asked for the third part
of a list expecting an answer through the part command. But a 
student used the command third, which I ignored in Maxima. In fact,

(C1) describe(third);
(D1)          FALSE

but 

(C2) third([a,b,c,d,e,f]);
(D2)            C

(Although, I must confess, 

(C3) describe(first);

 0: FIRST :(maxima.info)Definitions for Lists.

Info from file C:/MAXIMA/MAXIMA/info/maxima.info:
 - Function: FIRST (exp) SECOND (exp) .. TENTH (exp)   . . .

in my opinion, this is not sufficient.)

This is related to the fact that the manuals of Maxima do not include 
all of the available commands and this constitutes a difficulty for the 
user. (I repeat I have learnt on the availability of the command third
through a student's notebook. It seems not present in the manuals.) 
I can also add that this command is also not present in the commercial 
Macsyma Reference Manual, version 13, Nov. 1988, simply since, 
clearly, it has been added later even in the commercial Macsyma. 
(Analogously, for all of the commands second up to tenth.)

Therefore, my impression is that a list of all of the commands of
Maxima should be available (at least with a short, a one-line
explanation for each one of them). This will be very helpful. I
do not know whether this is already the case or not.

The conclusion seems to be well known and clear: Maxima is
very powerful in mathematics, computations and commands in
general, but not in convenient manuals for its user with little 
experience. It would be very nice if this situation could be 
improved in the future and I am sure this will permit its much 
more wide use.

Best regards from Patras,

Nikos

> --- "J. Milgram" <milgramjh@nswccd.navy.mil> wrote: 
> 
> I'd add: (4) a very high quality user's manual. Something for us to take
> notice of.
 
> I used Macsyma as an undergrad "because it was there".
> As a grad, I used Mathematica "because it was there".
> 
> Probably nothing would serve Maxima advocacy as well as encouraging
> general use on campus.
> 
> Judah