November 23rd, 2006, 2:22 pm
My view: Computer algebra is only part of symbolic computation.Symbolic computation systems shall empower its users to manipulate (not only numbers, but) symbols, say, mathematical expressions, logical expressions and rules, geometrical objects, chemical objects, electrical curcuits, financial derivatives?,.... and even computer programs.Simplified, Numerical schemes transform functional symbols into numbers.Both are the core technologies for computer mathmatics.If this was true, Maple is "betweeen" computer algebra and symbolic computation.MatLab's symbolic toolbox is even closer to computer algebra, but MatLab benefits from a strong numerical kernel and a lot of (traditionally implemented?) toolboxes.Mathematica is THE representative of symbolic computation (or if you want the "language of mathematics). It has been extended with increasingly powerful numerical schemes in the last years.The good news, if you take their APIs and Link technologies you can combine them, combine them with the most advanced numerical foundations, say, NAG, and your proprietary solvers.When I think, an application can be described in the "language of mathematics" (functions and patterns), I choose Mathematica's declarative envoronment.
Last edited by
exneratunrisk on November 22nd, 2006, 11:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.