user interfaces in general



>>>>> "Miguel" == Miguel Marco <mmarco at unizar.es> writes:

    Miguel> El Jueves, 20 de Abril de 2006 07:40, Ron Crummett escribi?:
    >> Agreed.  Well, I'm willing to help, but as I have said before I am not
    >> really sure where to start helping.  What (aside from the pretty
    >> exterior) are the most pressing needs?
    >> 
    Miguel> As far computing features, i would say the symbolic integration in maxima 
    Miguel> needs a lot of improving. Right now, even rational functions are not 
    Miguel> integrated. And if you want to convince someone used to Mathematica and/or 

Do you have examples of rational functions that maxima cannot
integrate?  Rational functions for which maxima cannot factor the
denominator doesn't count. :-)

    Miguel> Maple to give a try to maxima, one of the first things he will compare in 
    Miguel> precisely that (i think symbolic integration is the one of the most 
    Miguel> impressive features of a CAS for a newbie).
    Miguel> That first impression would be hard to overcome. That's why i think it would 
    Miguel> be good to do some effort in the symbollic integration.

While symbolic integration certainly needs more work, I think it's
still pretty impressive:

ratsimp(specint(t^(-1/2)*%e^(-2*a^(1/2)*t^(1/2))*%e^(-p*t),t));
=> -sqrt(%pi)*(erf(sqrt(a)/sqrt(p))-1)*%e^(a/p)/sqrt(p)

integrate(sin(9*x^(7/3)),x,0,inf);
=> 3*gamma(3/7)*sin(3*%pi/14)/(7*9^(3/7));

Ray