Interview: Maxima, for Open Source Algebra on Steroids
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Are you familiar with Maxima? It's a very complete open source algebra system with an emphasis on symbolic computation, licensed under the GPL. Its source code can be compiled easily for Windows, the Mac and Linux. Maxima's abilities include symbolic integration, 3D plotting, and there is an ODE solver. We recently caught up with Viktor Toth, project administrator and contributor for Maxima, for some thoughts.
OStatic:Â What is your specific involvement on this project?
Viktor Toth: First and foremost, I maintain the tensor algebra packages. I also maintain a Slackware distribution kit. Occasionally, I help with other tasks, such as debugging.
OStatic:Â What motivates you to participate in open source and freely give your work away?
Viktor Toth: I'm using the tensor algebra packages for gravitational physics. They were unmaintained, not working and lacking essential features, so I volunteered to help. As I have expertise both with tensor algebra and Lisp, I seemed to be an appropriate person for the job.
OStatic: What products are your closest competitors?
Viktor Toth: Maxima is in the same league as Mathematica or Maple. Perhaps a little less polished but in some ways, more powerful (I think for instance that the tensor algebra packages in Maxima can do things that cannot be done, at least not trivially, in other computer algebra systems.) Of course, it's also a LOT cheaper!
OStatic: Who is your typical user?
Viktor Toth: Typical users are students, educators, and researchers in (mainly)
mathematics and physics. We have a busy mailing list.
OStatic: Are there any unusual users of Maxima?
Viktor Toth: I've been corresponding with a solar physicist from Russia for many years; he made many valuable contributions to the tensor algebra packages. Notably, his use is very different from the intended use of these packages. They were designed by people working in relativity theory (4 spacetime dimensions), whereas he works in 3-dimensional space, with time as an independent variable. This provided crucial insight into how the packages could be improved.
OStatic: What's coming next for Maxima?
Viktor Toth: Improved user interface(s), continuously improving stability, better and more general algorithms.
OStatic: Thanks Viktor.
