I think TI have a strong case for keeping Derive as a handheld product. The
educational possibilities are enormous, and for teachers and students,
having a handheld CAS is possibly more useful than a more powerful CAS on a
computer. There have been many studies on the advantages and uses of "CAS
calculators" in the classroom, and as such calculators become more powerful,
my guess is that their use will become more widespread.
-Alasdair
On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 7:28 AM, Jaime Villate <villate at fe.up.pt> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 2008-04-23 at 14:16 -0400, Stavros Macrakis wrote:
> > 2) Why would TI want to release Derive under GPL?
> >
> > TI says "our plan is to incorporate Derive features and
> > compatibility into new TI products", so a GPL Derive would presumably
> > compete with their newer products. If TI were abandoning the CAS
> > market entirely, it would be easier to persuade them to release Derive
> > under GPL.
>
> TI hopes that the users of Derive will start buying their calculators
> and asking their students to do so, rather than installing another CAS
> system in their PCs. They will definitely not want to release Derive as
> Free Software. I think it would be a waste of time trying to convince
> them. I'd rather spend that time teaching former users of Derive how to
> migrate to Maxima. I did that in a Conference I attended last year where
> there were several people frustrated with the disappearance of Derive.
>
> Regards,
> Jaime Villate
>
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