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juni 07, 2004
Axiom (Computer Algebra System)
Axiom är ett system för datoralgebra (Computer Algebra Systems), som tidigare varit kommersiellt, men nu har släppts ganska fritt (läs licenserna noga).
Axiom is a general purpose Computer Algebra system. It is useful for research and development of mathematical algorithms. It defines a strongly typed, mathematically correct type hierarchy. It has a programming language and a built-in compiler.
Axiom has been in development since 1971. At that time, it was called Scratchpad. Scratchpad was a large, general purpose computer algebra system that was originally developed by IBM under the direction of Richard Jenks. The project started in 1971 and evolved slowly. Barry Trager was key to the technical direction of the project. Scratchpad developed over a 20 year stretch and was basically considered as a research platform for developing new ideas in computational mathematics. In the 1990s, as IBM's fortunes slid, the Scratchpad project was renamed to Axiom, sold to the Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG) in England and became a commercial system. As part of the Scratchpad project at IBM in Yorktown Tim Daly worked on all aspects of the system and eventually helped transfer the product to NAG. For a variety of reasons it never became a financial success and NAG withdrew it from the market in October, 2001.
NAG agreed to release Axiom as free software. The basic motivation was that Axiom represents something different from other programs in a lot of ways. Primarily because of its foundation in mathematics the Axiom system will potentially be useful 30 years from now. In its current state it represents about 30 years and 300 man-years of research work. To strive to keep such a large collection of knowledge alive seems a worthwhile goal.
Det finns även binär version av Axiom för Linux att ladda ner från denna sida. Den binära versionen funkade inte inte hos mig, så jag hämtade den senaste källkoden från CVS:en och kompilerade koden. Det tog cirka 6 timmar här hemma, och blev totalt över 500Mb. Men det funkar.
Axiom påminner rätt mycket om MuPAD, vilket också bör kollas in av den som känner sig lockad av kostnadslösa datoralgebrasystem. Men det är svårt att konkurrera med Maple och Mathematica.
Specifika nyhetsgrupper för Axiom:
axiom-developer
axiom-mail
axiom-math
Det finns också en bok (PDF, cirka 3Mb) på över 1100 sidor som beskriver systemet. Motsvarade DVI-fil skapas automatiskt vid kompileringen.
(Via Lambda The Ultimate.)
Posted by hakank at juni 7, 2004 08:22 EM Posted to Matematik