I use Matlab for my image processing subject, and I like it very much. I
would switch to scilab (which is free), if it offered reasonably good image
processing
functionality, which at the moment it doesn't. (Neither does octave,
really).
Th only reason I haven't yet switched to Maxima from Maple for my teaching
is that as yet Maxima doesn't provide much support for discrete mathematics:
simplification of Boolean expressions, graph theory etc. Also, its
interface, plotting and help browsing aren't quite up to Maple's!
But for much standard analysis, I do think that Maxima has much to offer the
working mathematician, and this is the line I intend to take in my talk.
-Alasdair
On 3/17/07, Nicolas Pettiaux <nicolas.pettiaux at ael.be> wrote:
>
> 2007/3/17, Richard Fateman <fateman at cs.berkeley.edu>:
>
> > You can find a bunch of things that Mathematica does wrong (and Maxima
> may
> > do right) in my review of Mathematica, which I have linked to my home
> page.
>
> Thanks.
>
> I also wanted to ask a similar question, as I my department, I was due
> to show why to use octave instead of matlab for the numerical analysis
> courses, and someone reacted saying that we should altogether drop
> matlab and octave for Mathematica, *the* system for him that could be
> used to teach a modern programming language (I would like to have some
> arguments in that respect) and a system that could be used to work in
> a much larger framework.
>
> I am buiding my arguments, that we should use a free system, and if
> looking beyond simply numerical computations, then go for SAGE for
> example, that offers a free environnement (it is a free software)
> python as programming language, with the power and features of a cas
> (thanks to Maxima and others), numerical tool (thanks to python
> matlplotlib and scipy, but also octave if needed) and a nice web
> interface (much like Mathematica).
>
> I would appreciate your experiences (I will also ask my friends in the
> octave, scipy and SAGE lists) for their arguments.
>
> THanks,
>
> Nicolas
>
>
> --
> Nicolas Pettiaux - email: nicolas.pettiaux at ael.be
>