SMath Studio - symbolic mathematics workpad software 5

[tsgrue]

I came across what appears to be a very promising mathematics software application, especially for engineers: SMath Studio. This is a symbolic mathematics package with a WYSIWYG workpad interface similar to MathCAD, which I really like. The software appears to be in the development stages, but has been stable for me. Try it out and - if you like it - please let the developers know you appreciate it!

http://en.smath.info

tsgrue: site engineering, stormwater
management, landscape design, ecosystem
rehabilitation, mathematical simulation

http://hhwq.blogspot.com

 

[corus]

It's good, though I've found a little bug already. Once it has units and subscripts then I can see it being the program of choice for most.

corus

 

[Andy512]

Interesting.

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[GregLocock]

Yes, the firewall where I work didn't like it either. However, my system remains spyware free, according to S&D.

It seems to handle exponentiation overflows rather too gracefully, leastways it had no problem reporting an answer for the factorial of 200.

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[IDS]

It seems to handle exponentiation overflows rather too gracefully, leastways it had no problem reporting an answer for the factorial of 200.

Greg - I was just about to say that it seems to give the correct result for exp(200), then I read what you actualy said.

For 200! I get "Result is above max allowed positive number"

(version 0.82, build 3477)

Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/

 

[GregLocock]

I ran the for loop example, eg with the counter set to 173
a:=1
for i:1,i<173,i:=i+1
a:=a*i

a=


gives a remarkably small answer

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[IFRs]

I'm excited to have a possible alternative to MathCad, which I have two complaints about (1) it loads and saves very slowly and (2) support stinks. Right now I either write my own programs in VB or use MathCad. I'm going to give SMath a real chance to impress me. The printed output appearance is critical for me, so that is one place I'll go first.

 

[GregLocock]

I've suggested they set up a wiki to handle the support issues.

The bad news is that for anything iterated it is very slow - a 32 element DFT is more than 2 hours of processing (admittedly not necessarily via an efficient algorithm, but Mathcad solves the same problem with the same approach , for 1024 elements, in about 10 seconds). DFT is an n^2 problem in this approach.



Cheers

Greg Locock

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[Mechv5]

Greg,

how are you writting your example

"a:=1
for i:1,i<173,i:=i+1
a:=a*i"

in Mathcad?

I'm sure it's a stupid question, but I'm not able to "programm" that "for" loop in that form (and at all)...

Thanks in advance.

 

[GregLocock]

the DFT example is not the same as the factorial one. My old copy of Mathcad doesn't have programming, I'd just use

i:2;173

x[1:1

x[i:x[(i-1)*i

for the factorial example.

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[Mechv5]

Thanks a lot, Greg!
I have a new copy of MathCad, but I still don't know how to use the "for" loop in this case...
I've made it "the old way", like you described, but... shame on me, I still have to practice MathCad...

 

[GregLocock]

IFRs -support stinks?

see

http://en.smath.info/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=214

40 minutes from bug report to new build!

Admittedly it desperately needs a manual and help and so on. i've suggested a wiki but that fell on deaf ears.



Cheers

Greg Locock

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[swertel]

Do you have a domain in which you could start your own wiki?

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[GregLocock]

Good idea. I don't have any usable server space, but there are free hosting services.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Starting_and_Running_a_Wiki_Website/Hosted_Wikis

I'll ask the devs if they are happy with me kicking one off.


Cheers

Greg Locock

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[GregLocock]

Ok we now have a wiki

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[swertel]

Nice yellow button now. Time for me to actually download, install, and play with this guy. With the past difficulty I had getting MathCAD licensed after I upgraded my computer, I'm still looking at switching.

Originally I was thinking some form of Mathematica, but now I have options!

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[GregLocock]

The big hint is use :eval() inside loops, this forces it to store each variable as a partial fraction instead of an algebraic representation.

The symbolic stuff is better than nothing but way short of Mathcad. The current plan is to use it as a front end to Maxima for symbolics (which rather begs the question why he didn't just use it as a front end to Octave for the matrix stuff?).





Cheers

Greg Locock

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[swertel]

Greg, I'm hoping you add to the Wiki real soon. One thing this is missing are some intro tutorials. I like the examples and knowledge book, though.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[SteveGregory]

I have never used any type of math programs before. I have depended on using Excel spreadsheets.

Is this program a good place to start?

Or is there any good reason why I should start using this type of software instead of Excel? The macros (VBA) that I use in Excel are only very simple ones. Otherwise, I seem to do alright with the functions in Excel.

 

[IRstuff]

It reallt depends on what you want to do. For me, Mathcad is indispensable, since it does unit conversions on the fly, which neither Excel nor SMath can currently do.

Additionally, SMath, and Mathcad, allow you to define variables, so your calculations can be somewhat self-documenting, so that returning to a calculation 6 months later, you can still read it and figure out what you did.

As discussed above, the visibility of the equations may be important for project documentation, while Excel's equations, even when using named ranges and using formulat display is still difficult to read, and Excel cannot simultaneously display the formulas and their results.

TTFN

FAQ731-376