[BlackGriffen]

We now have both of the primary computer algebra systems (CAS) available for OSX - Mathematica and Maple. I was surprised to discover the bit of freeware in fink called Maxima. So, I wanted to hear from those who have used all of them as to what is the best option.

I'll start with Maple: pros - Cocoa app, it's what everyone around here uses
cons - S.L.O.W., seems hell bent on maintaining it's reputation for instability.

Mathematica: pros - Very widely used, supposedly highly optimized.
cons - Strange syntax I never quite got used to in my brief time pirating the app a couple years ago, hasn't been updated since it was released for 10.1!

Maxima: pros - free, fast, I can extend it myself (if I can ever bring myself to learn lisp)
cons - GUI? What's GUI? Has a Tk GUI, and can interface with TeXMacs if you want prettier output, but they're admittedly second rate substitutes for a well done GUI. The plotting ability is also abysmal (I find that I always turn to gnuplot). The documentation is, IMHO, poor, scant, and difficult to search (inline searching with the describe function is a poor substitute for the full text searches available in Maple and Mathematica).

I should probably describe my situation since a lot of what I should get depends on situation. I'm a physics undergrad in my senior year and I'm looking seriously at going to grad school. I just recently purchased an iBook G4 800MHz, and it's got to last me (so if the program is slow now that is a potential issue). Is Mathematica or Maple worth it? If so, which one? Is it possible to make-do with Maxima (I'll keep it regardless, because it is handy for a quick calculation in the command line, if nothing else)? Does anyone know if there is any significant development, especially on Maxima, on the horizon?

Thanks for the help,
BlackGriffen

[clarkgoble]

What do you mean Mathematica has never been updated? It went from 4.2 to 5 a couple of months ago. I've not tried version 5 (4 is good enough for me). But it is quite good.

I didn't know Maple finally had a Cocoa version out. Their UI was always much weaker than Mathematica. Further the libraries of each have caught up to each other. My friends who do a lot of GR prefer Maple because of some of the tensor libraries. But I don't think they've tried the equivalent for Mathematic. I admit I did always prefer Maple's sytax, but Mathematic isn't that bad. Especially if you've ever programmed fortran.

[BlackGriffen]

Oops, that's what i get for going off of the fact that there wasn't a revision history on versiontracker...

How quick is Mathematica?

What packages are included with the student edition, and what do I have to pay extra for?

Sorry, I'm not trying to give you the third degree. I just want to make sure I go in to this with my eyes open.

Thanks,
BlackGriffen

[milhouse]

The student version is identical to the "full" version. When you print out a notebook, it should note "student or educational version" somewhere on the page.

Any add-ons can be had for ~$50 per package including neural networks etc.

There are plenty of built in statistical and symbolic tools to keep you busy

Mathematica even runs acceptably well on my iBook 800. It runs very well on my DP 1.25 GHz.

The student pricing is also phenomenal @ about 1/10th of the commercial version.

Have fun

[Jan Van Boghout]

We are forced to use Maple. If it's Cocoa, I'm Santa Clause. I think this would easily get an award for crappiest Mac port ever (not that the PC version is much better)