> I am starting to look for freely available programs for mathematical
> applications. I am interested also in the possibilities of symbolic
> calculations. How does Maxima compare to e.g. Maple? Can I use it, for
> instance, to solve parametric linear systems?
I'm afraid I don't know anything about Maple, but Maxima can certainly
solve linear systems with parameters, e.g.
eq1: a = b*x1 + (b^2-1)*x2 + a/b*x3$
eq2: 0 = x1 + x2 - x3$
eq3: 1= 1/(a+b)*x1 + (1-a)*x2 + x3$
solve([eq1,eq2,eq3],[x1,x2,x3]);
4 3 2 2 3 2 2
b + a b + (a - 2 a - 1) b + (a - 2 a ) b + a
(D10) [[x1 = ----------------------------------------------------------------------,
4 3 2 2 2 3 2
b + (2 a - 1) b + (a - 2 a - 1) b + (a - 2 a - 1) b
+ a - a + a
3 2 2
b - a b + a
x2 = - ----------------------------------------------------------------------,
4 3 2 2 2 3 2
b + (2 a - 1) b + (a - 2 a - 1) b + (a - 2 a - 1) b + a - a + a
4 3 2 2 3 2
b + (a - 1) b + (a - 2 a - 1) b + (a - a ) b
x3 = ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ]]
4 3 2 2 2 3 2
b + (2 a - 1) b + (a - 2 a - 1) b + (a - 2 a - 1) b + a - a + a