> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2007 18:32:46 +0100
> From: "Nicolas Pettiaux" <nicolas.pettiaux at ael.be>
> Subject: Argument in favor of Maxima vs mathematica / maple
> To: "Maxima list" <maxima at math.utexas.edu>
> Cc: Nicolas Pettiaux <nicolas.pettiaux at ael.be>
> Message-ID:
> <f89206d80701030932v6e41493fr957d8a687f288698 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> When I told a colleague of mine, in general a supporter of free
> software, who tries to develop the use of CAS in the university that
> he should favor Maxima as it is a free software, instead of maple or
> mathematica (that he uses), he answered that the language underlying
> maxima was "the old LISP" while maple and mathematica were developped
> using more modern technologies, hence, more powerful or at least
> valuable for a student to learn. he also claimed that he was more
> confident in a company supporting a software than a community, but
> this is a completely other point.
>
> I could not argue as I do not know Lisp (I have just started with a
> tutorial) but I would like to collect argument from the list members
> and put them in the wiki eg at
> http://maxima.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Supporting%20arguments
>
> I would also like to have an idea about high schools or universities
> using Maxima in effective underraduate or graduate education, and
> again put this in the wiki eg at
> http://maxima.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Example%20of%20use
>
> Thanks,
>
> Nicolas
>
>
Hi, Nicolas,
There has just been a discussion about this on the mailing list. I am
not an expert on this
matter but here is a quick summary. The basic issue is that maxima uses
dynamical scoping (like old
lisp) whereas allmost all modern languages (including modern lisp) use
lexical scoping.
There is a nice article on wikipedia on the issue of lexical vs
dynamical scoping.
People would like to convert the maxima language to use lexical scoping
but it is a substantial project.
Michel