Maple (software)
Maple interface | |
Developer(s) | Waterloo Maple (Maplesoft) |
---|---|
Stable release | 17 / March 13, 2013 |
Written in | C, Java |
Type | Computer algebra system |
License | Proprietary commercial software |
Website | www.maplesoft.com/products/maple/ |
Maple is a commercial computer algebra system developed and sold commercially by Maplesoft, a software company also based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The current major version is version 17 which was released in March 2013.
It was first developed in 1980 by the Symbolic Computation Group at the University of Waterloo. In 1988, Maplesoft (then known as Waterloo Maple Inc.) was founded to commercialize the technology.
Overview
Core functionality
Users can enter mathematics in traditional mathematical notation. Custom user interfaces can also be created. There is support for numeric computations, to arbitrary precision, as well as symbolic computation and visualization. Examples of symbolic computations are given below.
Maple incorporates a dynamically typed imperative-style programming language which resembles Pascal.[1] The language permits variables of lexical scope. There are also interfaces to other languages (C, C#, Fortran, Java, MATLAB, and Visual Basic). There is also an interface with Excel.
Maple supports MathML 2.0, a W3C format for representing and interpreting mathematical expressions, including their display in Web pages.[2]
Architecture
Maple is based on a small kernel, written in C, which provides the Maple language. Most functionality is provided by libraries, which come from a variety of sources. Many numerical computations are performed by the NAG Numerical Libraries, ATLAS libraries, or GMP libraries. Most of the libraries are written in the Maple language; these have viewable source code.
Different functionality in Maple requires numerical data in different formats. Symbolic expressions are stored in memory as directed acyclic graphs. The standard interface and calculator interface are written in Java.
History
The first concept of Maple arose from a meeting in November 1980 at the University of Waterloo. Researchers at the university wished to purchase a computer powerful enough to run Macsyma. Instead, it was decided that they would develop their own computer algebra system that would be able to run on lower cost computers. The first limited version appearing in December 1980 with Maple demonstrated first at conferences beginning in 1982. The name is a reference to Maple's Canadian heritage. By the end of 1983, over 50 universities had copies of Maple installed on their machines.
In 1984, the research group arranged with Watcom Products Inc to license and distribute Maple. In 1988 Waterloo Maple Inc. was founded. The company’s original goal was to manage the distribution of the software. Eventually, the company evolved to have an R&D department where most of Maple's development is done today with the rest done at university research labs worldwide including: the Symbolic Computation Laboratory at the University of Waterloo and the Ontario Research Centre for Computer Algebra at the University of Western Ontario.
In 1989, the first graphical user interface for Maple was developed and included with version 4.3 for the Macintosh. X11 and Windows versions of the new interface followed in 1990 with Maple V. In 1994 a special issue of a newsletter created by Maple developers called MapleTech' was published.[3]
In 1999, with the release of Maple 6, Maple included some of the NAG Numerical Libraries.[4] In 2003, the current "standard" interface was introduced with Maple 9. This interface is primarily written in Java (although portions, such as the rules for typesetting mathematical formulae, are written in the Maple language). The Java interface was criticized for being slow;[5] improvements have been made in later versions, although the Maple 11 documentation[6] recommends the previous (“classic”) interface for users with less than 500 MB of physical memory. This classic interface is no longer being maintained.
Between the mid 1995 and 2005 Maple lost significant market share to competitors due to a weaker user interface.[7] In 2005, Maple 10 introduced a new “document mode”, as part of the standard interface. The main feature of this mode is that math is entered using two dimensional input. In 2008, Maple 12 added additional user interface features found in Mathematica, including special purpose style sheets, control of headers and footers, bracket matching, auto execution regions, command completion templates, syntax checking and auto-initialization regions. Additional features were added for making Maple easier to use as a MATLAB toolbox.[8]
Maple 13 introduced a new flythrough feature for gaphing a new way to visualize graphing.
In September 2009 Maple and Maplesoft were acquired by the Japanese software retailer Cybernet Systems.
Maple 16's performance was being undercut by Mathematica when it compared its newest version to Maple 15. Many of Maple16's performance enhancements were actually much better than Mathematica's hence Wolfram's decision to compare it to an earlier version.[citation needed] Maple 16's graphical environment is much improved over the past.[citation needed]
Examples of Maple code
Sample imperative programming constructs:
myfac := proc(n::nonnegint) local out, i; out := 1; for i from 2 to n do out := out * i end do; out end proc;
Simple functions can also be defined using the "maps to" arrow notation:
myfac := n -> product( i, i=1..n );
Integration
Find
- .
int(cos(x/a), x);
Answer:
Determinant
Compute the determinant of a matrix.
M:= Matrix([[1,2,3], [a,b,c], [x,y,z]]); # example Matrix
LinearAlgebra:-Determinant(M);
Answer:
Series expansion
series(tanh(x),x=0,15)
f:=int(exp^cosh(x))
series(f,x=0,15);
Solve equation
High order polynomial equation
>f := x^53-88*x^5-3*x-5 = 0
>fsolve(f)
-1.097486315, -.5226535640, 1.099074017
Solve equation set
>f := (sin(x+y))^2 + exp(x)*y+cot(x-y)+cosh(z+x) = 0:
>g := x^5 - 8*y = 2:
>h:=x+3*y-77*z=55;
fsolve( {f,g,h} );
{x = -1.543352313, y = -1.344549481, z = -.7867142955}
Plotting of function of single variable
Plot with ranging from -10 to 10
plot(x*sin(x),x=-10..10);
Plotting of function of two variables
Plot with and ranging from -1 to 1
plot3d(x^2+y^2,x=-1..1,y=-1..1);
Animation of functions
- animation of function of two variables
with(plots); animate(subs(k = .5, f), x = -30 .. 30, t = -10 .. 10, numpoints = 200, frames = 50, color = red, thickness = 3);
- animation of functions of three variables
with(plots) animate3d(cos(t*x)*sin(3*t*y), x = -Pi .. Pi, y = -Pi .. Pi, t = 1 .. 2)
Laplace transform
with(inttrans);
f := (1+A*t+B*t^2)*exp(c*t);
laplace(f, t, s);
- inverse Laplace transform
invlaplace(1/(s-a),s,x)
Fourier transform
with(inttrans); fourier(sin(x),x,w)
*(Dirac(w-1)+Dirac(w+1))
Integral equations
Find functions that satisfy the integral equation
.
eqn:= f(x)-3*Int((x*y+x^2*y^2)*f(y), y=-1..1) = h(x): intsolve(eqn,f(x));
Answer:
Use of the Maple engine
The Maple engine is used within several other products from Maplesoft:
- Maple T.A., Maplesoft’s online testing suite, uses Maple to algorithmically generate questions and grade student responses.
- MapleNet allows users to create JSP pages and Java Applets. MapleNet 12 and above also allow users to upload and work with Maple worksheets containing interactive components.
- MapleSim, an engineering simulation tool.
Listed below are third-party commercial products that no longer use the Maple engine:
- Versions of Mathcad released between 1994 and 2006 included a Maple-derived algebra engine (MKM, aka Mathsoft Kernel Maple), though subsequent versions use MuPAD.
- Symbolic Math Toolbox in MATLAB contained a portion of the Maple 10 engine but now uses MuPAD.
- Older versions of the mathematical editor Scientific Workplace included Maple as a computational engine, though current versions include MuPAD.
See also
- Comparison of computer algebra systems
- List of computer simulation software
- MapleSim
- Mathematical software
- Waterloo Maple
- Sage (an open source algebra program)
References
- ↑ Power of two Bitwise Magazine
- ↑ http://www.maplesoft.com/standards/MathML/info.html
- ↑ MapleTech Special Issue, Birkhäuser-Boston, (1994)
- ↑ Maple 6.0 Macworld, Feb 2001
- ↑ Capturing knowledge with pure maths, Scientific Computing World.
- ↑ Maple 11 Installation Guide
- ↑ Interview with Gaston Gonnet, co-creator of Maple, SIAM History of Numerical Analysis and Computing, March 16, 2005
- ↑ New in Maple 12 Maplesoft
External links
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Maple |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Maple (software). |
- Maplesoft, division of Waterloo Maple, Inc. home website
- MaplePrimes - a community website for Maple users
- Comparison of mathematical programs for data analysis ScientificWeb
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