From: mroussel@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (Marc Roussel)
Subject: Re:  FREEWARE symbolic math.package??
Organization: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 03:56:06 GMT

     There are several PD and shareware symbolic manipulators available
under MS DOS.  Which is best for you depends on what type of calculations
you are likely to do.  Here are a few that I know about (in no particular
order):

     1) Symbmath:  Symbmath has a reasonably reliable computational
                   engine.  It occasionally fails to get very far on
   	           fairly simple problems, partly because of the way it
	           does things (if I understand correctly, it's
		   basically a symbolic algebra expert system) and
		   partly because some features have been left out of
		   the public version; more capable versions are
		   available by mail-order from the author.  It also
		   has a quirky user interface.  Still, if you have a
		   DOS machine, you should at least experiment with it
		   to see if it suits your needs.  It should definitely
		   satisfy students learning calculus and it is a useful
		   tool for verifying some hand computations.  (Filename of
		   latest known version: sm211a.zip)
     2) X(PLORE) (formerly CCALC):  This program has somewhat limited symbolic
		 capabilities but what it does, it does well.  It has
		 particularly well-integrated graphics and some
		 (numerical) matrix manipulation routines.  X(PLORE) is
		 capable of doing many numerical computations "out of the
		 box", and is programmable too.  The user interface is
		 excellent.  X(PLORE) is intended for calculus students
		 and should prove extremely useful to them; others will
		 find it occasionally useful, especially for visualization.
		 Addison-Wesley sells this with a book but it is also
		 available (without the manual but with a comprehensive
		 help system) by anonymous FTP.  (Filename of latest known
		 version: cc4-9206.zip)
     3) AMP: I know of this, but have yet to work my way through the
             manual.  The system seems powerful, but is a little hard to
	     learn.  (Filename of latest known version: amp30.arc)
     4) FORM: This is a heavy duty symbolic algebra system intended to
              tackle huge problems.  Again, I haven't yet looked at this
	      very hard.  (Filename of latest known version: form.arc)
     5) Mercury: This program has extremely limited symbolic
                 capabilities, but is extremely adept at numerically
		 solving equations and produces publication-quality
		 graphical output.  (This is the only package in this
		 list of which I would say this.)  This used to be
		 Borland's Eureka!, but when Borland abandoned it, its
		 original author started selling it as shareware under
		 the name Mercury.  (Filename of latest known version:
		 mrcry206.zip)
     6) PFSA: Again, I haven't looked at this very hard.  It seems to be
              a little primitive, but might be suitable for certain
	      classes of problems.  (Filename of latest version:
              vol546.zip)

     I believe that all of these programs are available by anonymous FTP
from wuarchive.wustl.edu under the edu/math/msdos directory.  (They are
all in subdirectories farther down.  You'll have to explore wuarchive a
little to find them all.  Most of them are, I think, in
edu/math/msdos/calculus.)

				Marc R. Roussel
                                mroussel@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca
Newsgroups: sci.math.symbolic