Greetings, and a question about sequences.

Probably your professor (and maybe you) thought that Matlab and Maxima were
similar, and that it wouldn't matter which one you used.  In fact they 
are quite
different, and I suggest that you use Matlab, as required by your 
instructor.

After you learn Matlab and calculus you will be in a better position to 
learn
and use Maxima.

In fact the commercial Macsyma (version 2.4) has an alternative syntax that
is just like Matlab, and even allows for the translation of Matlab  ".m" 
files
into Macsyma.   There is also a symbolic toolkit in Matlab which may be
available to you and your class: this is a link to parts of Maple.  So there
is some relationship between Matlab and some computer algebra stuff,
but really not the point I'm trying to make.

  If you want to learn maxima and lisp,
that's fine.  But do your assignments in Matlab.  If you irritate your
instructor and also get a poor grade in calculus, you won't have to
worry about computer algebra systems.  All you'll have to do is
remember to say "Do you want fries with that?".


RJF


Ben Logan wrote:

>Hello, everyone.
>
>I am new to the list and relatively new to Maxima, though I am not a
>total newbie.  I have just started a technical calculus course, which
>requires the use of Matlab, at a local college.  I asked my professor
>if I could substitute Maxima, and he said that would be okay--as long
>as I complete the worksheets, he doesn't care which CAS I use.  I am
>using Maxima version 5.9.0 with GCL on a Redhat 8.0 system (i686).  I
>am familiar with programming in various high-level languages, but lisp
>is unfortunately not one of them (yet).
>
>There is a document called "Matlab Basics" which I downloaded as part
>of my calc course, and I was looking through it trying to find the
>Maxima equivalents.  (If anyone wants to take a look, it is here:
>http://www.nr.edu/chalmeta/175/MatLab_Basics.pdf -- it isn't necessary
>to look at it to help me, though.)
>
>Here is my problem: in Matlab, you set up an array of values in a
>simple manner by using the ':' operator.  E.g.,
>
>x=2:4
>
>yields
>
>x = 2 3 4
>
>Or you can give a step value:
>
>x=2:.5:4
>
>yields
>
>x = 2.0000 2.5000 3.0000 3.5000 4.0000
>
>I have searched through the Maxima info pages, the docs on the
>website, and the 2003 mailing list archives, but I have not found an
>equivalent way to do this in Maxima.  I found out how to create a
>list:
>
>x:[2,4,6];
>
>But is there any way to automatically fill it with a sequence?  I
>tried using a FOR loop, but ran into problems with variable scope.
>Plus, that seems a little cumbersome unless there is no other way.
>
>Your help is greatly appreciated.  I'm sure I'll have more questions
>before my class is over. :-)
>
>Thanks,
>Ben
>
>  
>