A new open source mathematics program is looking to push aside commercial software commonly used in mathematics education, in large government laboratories and in math-intensive research.
The program’s backers say the software, called Sage, can do anything from mapping a 12-dimensional object to calculating rainfall patterns under global warming.
Sage is an browser-based open-source tool developed at the University of Washington that the school says more than a hundred mathematicians from around helped build. The package combines powerful number-crunching with new features, such as collaborative online worksheets, the school said.
"For about 10 years I had been really unhappy with the state of mathematical software," said William Stein, associate professor of mathematics and lead developer of the tool. The big commercial programs – Matlab, Maple, Mathematica and Magma – charge license fees. The Mathematica Web page, for example, charges $2,495 for a regular license. For another program, a collaborator in Colombia was quoted about $550, a special "Third World" discount price, to buy a license to use a particular tool, Stein said in a statement.
In addition, commercial programs don't always reveal how the calculations are performed. This means that other mathematicians can't scrutinize the code to see how a computer-based calculation arrived at a result, Stein said.
Last month, Stein and David Joyner, a mathematics professor at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., published a letter in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society in which they argue that the mathematical community should support and develop open-source software.
In early January, thousands of mathematicians will gather in San Diego for the joint meeting of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America. In the exhibition hall, Stein has paid the first-timers' rate of $400 to rent a booth alongside those of the major mathematical software companies, where he and students will hand out DVDs with copies of Sage.
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Wrong -> "Sage is an browser-based open-source tool"
sage is not a browser tool, its a set of programs and libraries, for mathematical computation, primarily via the python programming language. their is a firefox extension but that has nothing to do with what sage is...
"The Mathematica Web page, for example, charges $2,495 for a regular license" should read -> In contrast, Wolfram Research, Inc, charges $2,495 for a Mathematica License.
"...this article is grossly
"...this article is grossly inaccurate.. and poorly edited." Talk about the kettle calling the pot fat! Let's explore "poorly edited" for a moment. In "Anonymous's" post "Sage" should have been capitalized, "their" should have been capitalized and written as "There" (because, obviously, "Anonymous" didn't mean the plural possessive). People like "Anonymous" should be very careful about the stones they throw. No wonder he or she wanted to be Anonymous!
Not to mention the missing
Not to mention the missing apostrophe, superfluous comma, and use of an arrow instead of a colon.
The correct expression is:
The correct expression is: "The pot calling the kettle black."
The correct expression is:
The correct expression is: "The pot calling the kettle black."
Ha ha, pwned.
That is the archaic form of
That is the archaic form of the word. I believe current usage is "pwnt."
'The'
You mean "That is an archaic form of the word". There are multiple archaic formed. Thus, you are also 'p0wned.'
s/formed/forms/
s/formed/forms/
"...this article is grossly inaccurate..
I submit that the comment by "Government Informer (not verified) on Sat, 12/08/2007 - 11:12am.":
"Talk about the kettle calling the pot fat!" should be viewed as the kettle's rhetorical response to the pot's comment; "The pot calling the kettle black."
Hence, the start of a new Euphemism.
Some euphemisms are intended to be humorous.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A new open source
A new open source mathematics program is looking to push aside commercial software commonly used in mathematics education, in large government laboratories and in math-intensive research.