
	 			ALJABR

              Fort Pond Research is pleased to announce the   availability
    of ALJABR.  ALJABR is derived from Project MAC's Symbolic Manipulation
    System.  This computer algebra program was developed by the    Mathlab
    Group at M.I.T.'s Laboratory for Computer Science.  ALJABR is used for
    performing symbolic as well as numerical mathematical   manipulations.  
    
             With ALJABR the user can differentiate, integrate, take limits,
    solve systems of linear or polynomial equations, factor polynomials,
    expand functions in Laurent or Taylor series, solve differential equations
    (using direct or transform methods), compute Poisson series, plot curves,
    and manipulate matrices and tensors.  ALJABR has a high level language
    permitting the user to extend ALJABR with his own programs for
    transforming symbolic expressions.
    
              ALJABR is available to Macintosh users for $199.  The 
    Macintosh version runs in a 3.5 MB MultiFinder partition and requires 
    6 MB of hard disk storage.  The language reference manual will be 
    available in the first quarter 1991 (January - March) for $50.  Fort Pond 
    Research's ALJABR is interface equivalent to the M.I.T. computer algebra 
    program..  For those who have it, the MACSYMA Reference Manual
    ((c) 1983, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) would be adequate.  
    Workstation versions can also be arranged dependent upon market 
    demands.  Product support via Internet mailing lists.  Future plans 
    include porting ALJABR to PC DOS, as well as upgrading the user 
    interface and graphics.
    
              Other Fort Pond Research Macintosh products:  Franz Lisp 2.0 
    ($199), Franz Lisp 2.0 and all sources ($649), and an electronic mail 
    program Mac/gnuucp ($30).  All Fort Pond Research products come 
    with a 60 day money back guarantee.  To order please send product 
    request and a check for full amount (Massachusetts residents add 6% 
    sales tax) to:  
    
    Fort Pond Research
    15 Fort Pond Road
    Acton, MA  01720 				fpr@world.std.com (Jim E ODell)
    
			What is  ALJABR
				or
    		ALJABR = "vaxima" on macintosh

    			fateman@peoplesparc.Berkeley.EDU (Richard Fateman)

    In case you were wondering what Jim ODell's ALJABR is, I've gotten
    a chance to try it out, although not extensively.  If others have
    worked on it more, I'd like to here about it.  Here's a summary of my 
    observations:

    Basically, if you've been using the Macsyma system (especially "vaxima" 
    on a vax under franz lisp), you'll find this system to be essentially 
    the same, except instead of having to run on a VAX or Sun or similar 
    workstation, you can use a Macintosh (minimum 4 meg memory, about 6.5 meg
    hard disk).

    If you've written add-in lisp programs in Franz Lisp, it seems that
    they too are likely to work. This can make it very good for further
    system-building projects if lisp is your language of choice.

    Advantages: inexpensive ($199), A longer history of ironing out bugs 
    than the other systems. Full access to a lisp underneath. Features that
    Maple, Mathematica, etc. are still trying to implement, like declaring 
    assumptions that are used for category and inequality testing, integration
    that works more often.  Lots of application library stuff, though of 
    varying quality.  It is quite fast for (for example) Taylor series,
    rational functions, Poisson series,..;
     
    Disadvantages (some to be fixed in a later edition): minimal interaction
    with Mac interface; the "describe" facility is missing; plotting is
    weak; features or fixes that have been added by Symbolics are not included.
    Macsyma has not taken advantage of certain data-structure ideas that
    came into popularity later, and so is rather slow for "general"
    manipulation not using special forms. A major part of the current
    documentation is the MIT manual, which is not keyed to the Macintosh,
    but to the PDP-10!  An additional 33 page document is provided
    with version 1.0.  Although I didn't experience it, the document says
    that some kinds of errors which use up all the memory can, in version 1.0,
    cause the Macintosh to 'hang'. 

    There now seem to be at least 5 versions of Macsyma-derived systems.

      (1) Symbolics'  Macsyma(tm)  
      (2) Paradigm Associates' version of DOE-Macsyma 
      (3) Schelter's version of DOE-Macsyma "Maxima" 
      (4) Fateman's "Vaxima" in the DOE library.
      (5) Fort Pond Research's ALJABR.

    1,2,3 are in Common Lisp, 4,5 are in Franz Lisp.  Most major (and many
    minor) features are identical in all of them.

    Fort Pond Research is at: 	15 Fort Pond Road
			     	Acton MA  01720 USA.  
    				(508) 263-9692.
    				aljabr@fpr.com  

       				Richard Fateman (fateman@cs.berkeley.edu)

