On 4/18/2013 8:54 AM, Henry Baker wrote:
> I've watched several of the YouTube videos from MIT's 18.085 math course called
> "Computational Science & Engineering". Although Professor Strang may not be the
> world's best lecturer, I did like the general flow of the course, which
> integrates the infinitesimal calculus side-by-side with finite differences,
> aka matrix algebra aka finite element analysis.
>
> Although the course uses MatLab, it could just as easily have used Maxima, and
> the symbolic capabilities of Maxima would have enabled closer integration
> of the calculus & matrix methods.
>
> Perhaps someone on this list might already be teaching a course similar to
> Strang's, but using Maxima instead.
>
> Someone may have to define a small number of functions & operators to make
> Maxima "look" more like Matlab & thereby smooth out these differences.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Maxima mailing list
> Maxima at math.utexas.edu
> http://www.math.utexas.edu/mailman/listinfo/maxima
Maybe you could identify more specifically what items from Matlab are
needed?
It is unfortunate, but hardly surprising, that the MIT math department
doesn't use
symbolic mathematical computing.
The last commercial Macsyma had a Matlab feature ...
from the documentation:
MATLAB
Macsyma supports nearly all of the language features and functionality
of Matlab.
If you know the name of a Matlab function, you can usually
find the name of the comparable Macsyma function in one of
three ways:
- The Matlab command name may be the same as in Macsyma.
For example HANKEL and TOEPLITZ are the same in Macsyma
and Matlab.
- The Macsyma name may be of the form MAT_name.
For example EYE -> MAT_EYE.
- Macsyma may have a closely related function which does
not behave like the Matlab command of the same name.
For example, Macsyma's SVD does not do what Matlab's
SVD does, while Macsyma's MAT_SVD command does what
Matlab's SVD command does.
Other examples of this type of name include MAT_MAX,
MAT_MIN, and MAT_SUM.
Even when it is not documented in Macsyma, the name
MAT_Matlabname often works for the Matlab command
Matlabname.
An important difference between the Macsyma and Matlab
languages is that Macsyma distinguishes Boolean, fixnum
and floating point data types, while Matlab does not.
Macsyma can translate Matlab command files to Macsyma
command files.