I was preparing to make a presentation to a Dean of Science about
improving the effectiveness of teaching mathematics to students of science
and engineering, for whom mathematics is a tool not a career; I sought to
demonstrate that for this purpose one does not have to spend big money --
and especially in 'developing' countries 'big' money is involved -- but
one can employ Maxima as a viable alternative to expensive software such
as Maple, Mathematica and MuPAD. However, when that simple plot of
the definite integral of %e^(-x^2) (without the integration constant)
failed, and especially when that barbarism and solecism of 'loose' for
'lose' appeared on trying to "quit from windows", I was too ashamed of
maxima to include it in my presentation.
It is disgraceful, anti-intellectual and anti-academic of Robert
Dodier to tolerate such gross deficiencies. How can somebody with such
a mentality justify his presence in an institution of so called higher
education and learning? The end does not jusfify the means.
J. F. Ogilvie
On Sun, 9 Sep 2007, Richard Fateman wrote:
> Some people working on Maxima know English as a second language.
> (you could do people a favor by specifying where the misspelled word is.
> I saw it in wxmaxima when one tries to quit from windows. Anywhere else?)
> I don't know why erf(x) cannot be plotted.
>
> RJF