Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!alberta!ubc-cs!fornax!mcdonald
From: mcdonald@fornax.UUCP (Ken Mcdonald)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Math programs
Message-ID: <1081@fornax.UUCP>
Date: 20 Jun 89 06:57:59 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: School of Computing Science, SFU, Burnaby, B.C. Canada
Lines: 18

I'm considering purchasing a symbolic math package for the Mac, and
there are a few questions I'd like to get answers to, if possible:

1)  The packages I'm aware of are Maple and Mathematica.  Any other
high-powered packages for the Mac?

2)  Are these packages extensible, i.e. can I program in algorithms
to solve problems of particular interest to me?  Are there any libraries
for functions for these programs accessible via FTP?  If I write a function
for Mathematica on NeXT, for instance, can I port the binary to the
Macintosh?  How is Maple for cross-machine porting of user-defined functions?

3)  Does anyone have any opinions on which of these packages is better?
(Better doesn't necessarily mean more powerful--it might mean easy to
use and inexpensive.)

Thanks,
Ken McDonald