Maxima for numerical methods (v. Scilab)?

On Sun, 2006-04-30 at 08:33 +1000, Alasdair McAndrew wrote:
> I only use commercial software if there's no alternative.

Hi Alasdair,
please notice that free software can also be considered "commercial
software". Perhaps you meant proprietary software?

Scilab is not really free software, because it has some restrictions
on commercial redistribution. Maxima does not have those restrictions.

I already told you my arguments (see the list archives for November
2005) for using Maxima to teach a differential equations course.

> As for a book; sure, why not?  A very good book, available online, is
> "Numerical Computing with MATLAB" by Cleve Moler (founder of The
> Mathworks) available at http://www.mathworks.com/moler/index.html.
> I'd be happy if I could produce something similar-ish to that, but
> based on free software.  Anyone interested in being a co-author?

Count me in. I have already written a book on Dynamical Systems, based
on Maxima:
http://fisica.fe.up.pt/pub/maxima/sistdinam.pdf
source: http://fisica.fe.up.pt/pub/maxima/sistdin-fonte-1_0.tgz

I was even awarded a 2500 euro prize for my work, much more than I
would have earned from royalties from a book editor :)

I'm working on an English version of it. In that book I use some
additional functions I wrote to solve differential and difference
equations numerically. That material could be used for your book.

Regards,
Jaime Villate