XML, why Mma is popular, was...Re: [Maxima] Lunch with George Carrette
Subject: XML, why Mma is popular, was...Re: [Maxima] Lunch with George Carrette
From: Nicolas Neuss
Date: 31 Oct 2003 10:44:24 +0100
"Richard Petti" <rjpetti@rcn.com> writes:
> (sad historical report)
I only want to add a remark.
> ----
> 1.3 Macsyma Inc.
> ----
>
> ...
>
> o Although Macsyma 2.0.5 was still very slow at numerics, it had
> a greatly strengthened portfolio of numerical analysis and
> linear algebra routines. In 1996 we added LAPACK to solve
> the worst speed problems in numerical linear algebra.
>
> ...
>
> ------------
> 3. Diagnosis
> ------------
>
> ----
> 3.1 Products and Technology
> ----
>
> Macsyma's most damaging product problem was slowness in numerical
> analysis. ...
>
> ...
The situation in this respect may be better today. With Matlisp
(http://matlisp.sourceforge.net), we have an interface to LAPACK freely
available. And I guess that at the beginning of next year, I will have
made my package Femlisp (www.femlisp.org) fast enough to compete seriously
with other numerical software on solving PDEs numerically. Admitted, these
packages are not integrated with Maxima. But on the other hand, most
people do not use Mathematica for doing hard numerical stuff, but Matlab
(and for PDEs Femlab). And the collaboration of Lisp packages using Maxima
and Matlisp is surely easier than that of Mathematica and Matlab programs.
Nicolas.