Maxima for numerical methods (v. Scilab)?

Hi all,

Richard Fateman wrote:

>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Nicolas Pettiaux" 
> <nicolas.pettiaux at ael.be>
> To: "Alasdair McAndrew" <amca01 at gmail.com>
> Cc: "maxima list" <maxima at math.utexas.edu>
> Sent: Saturday, April 29, 2006 9:36 AM
> Subject: Re: [Maxima] Maxima for numerical methods (v. Scilab)?
>
>
>> 2006/4/29, Alasdair McAndrew <amca01 at gmail.com>:
>>
>>> It seems I may be teaching an elementary subject in numerical 
>>> computation
>>> next semester.  The usual sorts of things: error analysis, solution of
>>> equations, interpolation, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, quadrature,
>>> differential equations.  I want to base the subject around free 
>>> software, so
>>> the students can use it at home.
>>
>
> This doesn't seem like a very good argument -- there are student 
> licenses for
> software that are less expensive than textbooks, and you seem to
> be expecting students to have relatively expensive computers at home.
> (I thought mupad had free student use licenses, too)

[...]

It depends where. In Latin America this is a very good argument. 
Privative software is extremly expensive, and computers at home are not 
relatively expensive in most homes. There is also a conceptual issue 
here as Joris van der Hoeven (author of TeXmacs) has already said in his 
writing: "Why freedom is important for scientists" in:

http://www.texmacs.org/tmweb/about/philosophy.en.html

Cheers,

Offray

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