[Blindmath] Computational software

Sat Mar 12 22:00:01 UTC 2016

Has anyone figured out how to use sage accessibly?

On 3/12/2016 9:41 AM, John G. Heim via Blindmath wrote:
> I think you are going to have to download and try the packages 
> yourself. My understanding is that the choice depends too much on your 
> particular needs. That and personal preference. Do you have linux? If 
> so, installing octave is a simple apt-get (or whatever package manager 
> you use). Sage has to be downloaded and compiled but I can supply you 
> with the bash script I use to do that. I update sage on our research 
> cluster by simply running this bash script.
>
> I think it is a bit of a hassle to get even the free, student version 
> of magma. It might be worth it though. Our computational math courses 
> usually use magma. The instructors seem to like it a lot.
>
> We give our researchers access to matlab and maple as well. But I 
> don't know anything about free or demo versions of those packages. And 
> we do not supply maxima or mathematica to our students or faculty. If 
> they want to use those packages, they have to buy them themselves.
>
>
>
> On 03/12/2016 01:35 AM, John Gardner wrote:
>> Wow, what great feedback. Thanks to Ben, Neil, Jonathan, Theodor, and 
>> John!
>>
>> Please help me with one more question. I know that Mathematica does 
>> symbolic math, but I am not familiar enough with Octave, Sage, 
>> Maxima, or Magma to know which, if any, do symbolic math as well as 
>> numerical computation. I would appreciate help in choosing the right 
>> symbolic math app.
>>
>> Very much thanks.
>>
>> John
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of 
>> John G Heim via Blindmath
>> Sent: Friday, March 11, 2016 6:58 AM
>> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics 
>> <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
>> Cc: John G Heim <jheim at math.wisc.edu>
>> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Computational software
>>
>> I'm at the University of Wisconsin Department of Mathematics. Around 
>> here, if people are going to use an open-source alternative to 
>> matlab, a lot of them use sage. A few use octave. The vast majority 
>> just use matlab, of course.
>> A lot of people also use magma. We have the paid version but there is 
>> a free student version as well.
>>
>>
>> On 03/10/2016 06:59 PM, Godfrey, Jonathan via Blindmath wrote:
>>> Hello all,
>>>
>>> I told John in an offline discussion that various tools that range 
>>> in their accessibility can be used in batch mode. I have used each 
>>> of the following command lines in experiments. Each sits in a  batch 
>>> file that I click on in Windows explorer. In each case, I must know 
>>> what files I want to have the software read the commands from and 
>>> written to; sometimes the output files being written are specified 
>>> inside the input file and not on the command line. Obviously, I must 
>>> know the correct syntax for the software to get any programs working 
>>> using the following command lines, and I have to admit that my tests 
>>> have been very basic proofs of concept.
>>>
>>> For Mathematica:
>>> "C:\Program Files\Wolfram Research\Mathematica\10.0\math.exe" -script
>>> InputTest.txt
>>>
>>> For Maxima:
>>> "C:\Program Files\Maxima-5.25.0\bin\maxima.bat" -q --userdir="." <
>>> "in.txt" > out.txt N.B. I'm sure there is a newer version of Maxima.
>>>
>>> For Octave:
>>> "C:\Program Files\Octave\bin\octave-3.0.0.exe" -q < test.m >
>>> results.txt N.B. Neil has just pointed us to a much newer version of 
>>> Octave. I'm downloading now...
>>>
>>> For Matlab:
>>> c:\progra~1\matlab\R2010b\bin\matlab.exe -r BATCHTest20140516.m
>>> -logfile Log2.txt N.B. I do not have this software on my own 
>>> computer anymore.
>>>
>>> For R:
>>> "C:\Program Files\R\R-3.2.3\bin\i386\r.exe" CMD BATCH --vanilla
>>> --quiet Input.R N.B. The output file is the same as the input 
>>> filename but the extension changes to Rout.
>>>
>>> It seems none of my colleagues is using Maple so our licence has died,
>>> and while I might include command lines for other statistical software
>>> (SAS etc.), I would never suggest most Stats software  be used for
>>> doing mathematical work. (Obvious exception is R of course)
>>>
>>>
>>> All of the above software can handle numeric computation, but 
>>> symbolic maths work isn't possible with all of these options. Octave 
>>> and Matlab use practically the same code, but all of the others have 
>>> their own syntax, which of course is not always thought of as an 
>>> accessibility issue, although I would say having accessible 
>>> documentation is a necessary criterion to impose on all software. 
>>> Only Maxima has its own front end to generate code that could be put 
>>> into an input file, and thankfully that GUI is pretty accessible. 
>>> From my perspective, finding out what code is needed to do a job is 
>>> the task of a student's lecturers, tutors etc. Getting people into a 
>>> position to test that code is one of the things this list does well.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Jonathan
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
>>> John Gardner via Blindmath
>>> Sent: Friday, 11 March 2016 11:18 a.m.
>>> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
>>> Cc: John Gardner
>>> Subject: [Blindmath] Computational software
>>>
>>> Hello listers, may I request your expertise on computational math 
>>> applications. I am told that MatLab is reasonably accessible in 
>>> command line mode. Can you recommend other numerical computation 
>>> software that is powerful, accessible, and less expensive than 
>>> MatLab? Secondly I would appreciate recommendations for symbolic 
>>> solution applications such as Maple and Mathematica. I have used 
>>> both of these and found Maple in particular to be quite accessible 
>>> in command line mode. But I have not done such work in many years 
>>> and fear that their accessibility is not as good now.
>>>
>>> I am asking because Summer University presenters want to have
>>> workshops on both types of math application, but none of us is a real
>>> expert on these apps. FYI Summer University is a workshop associated
>>> with the ICCHP conference held in July in Linz, Austria. It is
>>> intended to teach blind students and professionals working with blind
>>> students about modern techniques for accessing STEM. If you can afford
>>> a trip to Austria, anyone in either of these categories is welcome to
>>> apply. Information on Summer University  is linked from the ICCP web
>>> site http://icchp.org
>>>
>>> Thanks for any help you can throw my way.
>>>
>>> John Gardner
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> John Gardner
>>>    |
>>> President
>>> |
>>>
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>> -- 
>> -- 
>> John G. Heim; jheim at math.wisc.edu; sip://jheim@sip.linphone.org
>>
>>
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