I have been reading the Axiom manual and it appears to have many features
that I had thought about writing for Maxima. However, I am not sure if it
is a worth while investment of my time to learn it. I know apriori, as in
all real product comparisons, each is pareto optimal if you take enough
factors into account.
After looking through some archives of this mailing list, I have deemed
there an insufficient comparison of Maxima vs Axiom, listing pros, cons,
and actual user experience.
What I want is a reasonable comparison of the two systems in terms of
capabilities, efficiency, ease of use, etc. I do not want to start a flame
war nor I am not looking for "X simply is better." I need facts to
determine if Axiom is worth the learning curve.
I'll start with a few things I have read (I've not used the tool yet, but I
am preparing to give it a try). I have read that
(1) Axiom's integrator is more complete. Maxima's fails to find the
anti-derivative of: x/sqrt(x^4 + 10*x^2 - 96*x - 71), but Axiom's provides
an answer (that is too long for me to write out, but check the wiki for
Risch Algorithm).