Greetings,
> > I discovered Maxima to be a wonderful way for teaching a first
> > programming language combined with a CAS. To me and my
> > students it is both easy and powerful.
>
> i find the maxima language to be rather pleasant for programming.
> it is simple (which puts limits on what one can do, but for beginners
> that is not a problem), and it inherits from lisp the "everything is an
> expression" point of view.
>
I recognize in these paragraphs my own experience with Maxima.
I like to teach maths with the assistance of a computer, and I have been an
intensive user of java applets and spreadsheets as pedagogical tools.
When I discovered Maxima, about twelve months ago, I began to think about the
advantages and possibilities of such a program. Besides maths, I also teach
some basic computing, and when I had to choose the programming language, my
vote was for Maxima: so, my (high school) students learned to use a CAS and
to write simple functions (with for-loops, conditionals and all that) with
Maxima.
Now, during this new academic year, some of those students will attend my math
class, and they are already familiar with Maxima and how to program
functions!
My project for this course is to use Maxima as a mathematical laboratory. I'm
very excited waiting for the results of this experience.
Mario
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Mario Rodriguez Riotorto
www.biomates.net