[Blindmath] Computational software

Sun Mar 13 02:01:32 UTC 2016

Classic version. Maple 8. So it's an old version.
Haven't tried any newer versions.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Guyette via Blindmath" <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
To: "Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics" 
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Cc: "Robert Guyette" <rags215 at comcast.net>
Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2016 8:12 PM
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Computational software

> What version of maple are you using is at the classic Maple Orza standard 
> Maple.Thank you
> Sent from Outlook Mobile
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> On Sat, Mar 12, 2016 at 5:07 PM -0800, "Aqil Sajjad via Blindmath" 
> <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
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> It's in the display settings. The default setting shows some things the 
> way
> a sighted person would see them. That becomes inaccessible for us. I 
> believe
> we need to set the display setting to standard maple input format.
> Ironically, changing this setting is the one inaccessible part. I have
> always needed to ask someone for sighted help whenever I installed maple.
> But after this, it works fine with jaws.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Robert Guyette via Blindmath"
> To: "Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics"
>
> Cc: "Robert Guyette"
> Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2016 7:48 PM
> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Computational software
>
>
>> What is that change you need make in maple.Thanka
>>
>> Sent from Outlook Mobile
>>
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>> On Sat, Mar 12, 2016 at 4:43 PM -0800, "Aqil Sajjad via Blindmath"
>>  wrote:
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>> A quick comment regarding mathematica. Wolfram, the company which sells
>> the
>> program, looked into what could be done to make it accessible for screen
>> readers a couple of years ago. The conclusion was that with the current
>> design of the program, it would be extremely difficult to make it
>> accessible, unless the whole program was re-written from scratch. 
>> However,
>> they were able to produce a code so that you could enter mathematica
>> commands into a text file and execute them. The output is then written on
>> a
>> separate text file. Every time you want to run a new command, you go to
>> the
>> text file where the commands are to be entered, then go to mathematica 
>> and
>> hit a couple of short cut keys which make it execute the file, and then
>> reopen the output text file to read the results. This is of course rather
>> cumbersome, so it is better not to make mathematica your main choice. In
>> contrast, maple works really well with jaws. Or at least the old version
>> which I have on my windows XP machine is pretty accessible. You just have
>> to
>> set one particular display setting after installation.
>>
>> For the most part, you only need one such software to get your work done,
>> and maple can be a pretty good choice for that purpose. There can be two
>> exceptional cases where it may still be worth using mathematica. One is
>> when
>> you are trying to calculate some complicated integral and maple cannot do
>> it. Then you feel like also trying mathematica to see if you have better
>> luck with that. The other part where it may get tricky is when someone 
>> you
>> are working with does something in mathematica or if you want to use some
>> existing worksheet on the internet for some particular calculation.
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Godfrey, Jonathan via Blindmath"
>> To: "Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics"
>>
>> Cc: "Godfrey, Jonathan"
>> Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2016 3:09 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Computational software
>>
>>
>>> Hi John et al.,
>>>
>>> Here is the experiment I conducted using Maxima:
>>>
>>> solve(a*x^2+b*x+c=0,x);
>>> tex(solve(a*x^2+b*x+c=0,x));
>>>
>>> The first line just ask for the solution (with respect to x) to the
>>> standard quadratic equation, and the second asks for the answer to be
>>> converted to \LaTeX code. The returned lines from the output file were:
>>>
>>> [x = -(sqrt(b^2-4*a*c)+b)/(2*a),x = (sqrt(b^2-4*a*c)-b)/(2*a)]
>>> $$\left[ x=-{{\sqrt{b^2-4\,a\,c}+b}\over{2\,a}} ,
>>> x={{\sqrt{b^2-4\,a\,c}-b}\over{2\,a}} \right] $$
>>>
>>> Of course I might prefer the solution be expressed using a plus or minus
>>> sign to reduce the duplication, but the point remains that Maxima can
>>> deliver with respect to symbolic manipulation. Btw: Unlike other
>>> software,
>>> I did not need to specify which elements of the expression needed to be
>>> treated as symbols.
>>>
>>> That TeX is pretty ugly too in my opinion but not all that much worse
>>> than
>>> the way Maxima presented the two solutions. This is a great example of
>>> how
>>> difficult working in \LaTeX can be, and how fiddly it could prove to
>>> manipulate the numerator into the more conventional form \pm b -
>>> \sqrt{b^2-4ac} for those students lacking familiarity with the material
>>> and/or \LaTeX. Manipulation like this can of course be left for a
>>> different discussion.
>>>
>>> I haven't the skills to drive the other programs you sought feedback on.
>>> I
>>> expect Mathematica can match the above, but if it doesn't have a demo
>>> version or dirt cheap student licence then it might not make the grade
>>> anyway, no matter how accessible it can be made.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Jonathan
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of John
>>> Gardner via Blindmath
>>> Sent: Saturday, 12 March 2016 8:35 p.m.
>>> To: jheim at math.wisc.edu; Blind Math list for those interested in
>>> mathematics
>>> Cc: John Gardner
>>> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Computational software
>>>
>>> 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
>>>
>>> Cc: John G Heim
>>> 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
>>>>   |
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>>>>
>>>> 541.754.4002 x 200
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>>> --
>>> --
>>> John G. Heim; jheim at math.wisc.edu; sip://jheim@sip.linphone.org
>>>
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