Slightly OT: student usage of Maxima vs Maple

Dear Dotan,
"When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price."
This article is taken from GPL. Do not consider maxima only as a free
software. You can write your own code, or even change it to your needs. This
is a great plus (surely, if you know how you can).
Alper...




On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 6:52 PM, Javed Alam <jalam1001 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dotan
>
> I am an engineering educator who has used mathematica, maple, matlab and
> mathcad in different courses. I have access to all these programs for free
> and student can get access to them for free while they are at the school.
> However, there are two issues what happens when students leave the school.
> Some employers provide access to these programs and some do not. Also, I am
> also thinking about education in global sense and not every body can afford
> to buy these programs on licensing cost. Even an employer provides access to
> them it will be just one or two and if student did not learn that particular
> package then he/she has to relearn.
>
> Therefore, I am experimenting with two packages mainly Maxima and Scilab
> for now and I would like to add Octave to the mix. Here is a complete course
> that is based upon these two packages I have taught in the past.
>
> http://www.eng.ysu.edu/~jalam/engr6924s07<http://www.eng.ysu.edu/%7Ejalam/engr6924s07>;
>
> It needs some polishing infact lot of polishing but it will give you an
> idea of what is possible of these packages. You are welcome to look around
> and I will be happy to get your feed back. I think most of the problems we
> encounter in engineering computation can be solved using with these
> pacakages. In fact I think Maxima is a perfect engineering calculator. It
> extends all the functionality of an existing calculator and throws in
> algebraic manipulation of matrices and integration and differentiation and
> solution of diff equations as a bonus.
>
> Let me know what you think.
>
> Javed Alam
>
> jalam1001 at gmail.com
>
>
> On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 5:39 AM, Alasdair McAndrew <amca01 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> The last major comparison of CAS's was done in 1999.  Since the range of
>> problems solvable by a modern CAS is vast, I think you should simply compare
>> Maple and Maxima for your own use - mechanical engineering education.  I for
>> one would be delighted in your findings.  I have access to Maple, but use it
>> myself only rarely these days.
>>
>> cheers,
>> Alasdair
>>
>>
>> On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 7:14 PM, Dotan Cohen <dotancohen at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> As a second-year mechanical engineering student, I have only
>>> superficially examined Maxima for my needs. I find that wxMaxima meets
>>> most of my current needs, but my future nneeds I do not yet know.
>>> Today, the folks at Maple set up shop in my university and are selling
>>> one-year student licenses of Maple for the equivalent of $15 USD. I
>>> bought one so that I could use both programs for one year and compare
>>> their usage.
>>>
>>> I intend to solve my problems with both programs as often as I can, so
>>> that I can know them both. However, unfamiliar with mathematical
>>> programs in general, what features/properties should I pay special
>>> attention to? What are the known advantages and disadvantages of each?
>>> While in principal I prefer open source software (I use Kubuntu Linux
>>> OS), I do believe in using the best tool for the job. I'm not looking
>>> for an open-source vs closed source argument, but rather personal
>>> comparisons of the programs regardless of price or license.
>>>
>>> I hope that this does not turn into a flame war, but it seems to me
>>> that the maxima list is much less willing to flame honest this-vs-that
>>> questions than, say, the debian list :) Thanks in advance.
>>>
>>> Dotan Cohen
>>>
>>> http://what-is-what.com
>>> http://gibberish.co.il
>>> ?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?
>>>
>>> A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
>>> Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Maxima mailing list
>>> Maxima at math.utexas.edu
>>> http://www.math.utexas.edu/mailman/listinfo/maxima
>>>
>>
>>
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>>
>
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