jscl-meditor - java symbolic computing library and mathematical editor

• News
• Project description
• Implementations
• Symbolic capabilities
• Download
• Installation
• Dependencies
• Papers
• Acknowledgements
• Related projects
• Contact
• Copyright

News

• Packages for the following projects are added:

• Most engines are enabled for java web start and available on-line with this button:

• There is a new plotting facility which is used in Hartmath, MathEclipse and Jasymca (more engines to come). It is based on SVG and Batik and works as follows : as a "plot" expression is evaluated, it is converted in SVG and pasted in the editor. The latter renders automatically any expression enclosed in <svg></svg>, as it already did for MathML. Exports to PDF and XHTML are supported, in vector graphics.
  

• XML libraries are upgraded to their up-to-date versions (JEuclid, Fop, Batik)

• Version 1.0 of ScAS is made available

• Some engine interoperation is considered : through its Jython interface, the ScAS library can be used from the JAS engine. The newly included JLinAlg library can be used from any engine with import ability (i.e. Jython, BeanShell or Scala based ones, namely : JAS, SymPy, JSCL, ScAS).

• Copy to Wiki is made in TeX, in compatibility with Wikipedia. meditorworld is moved to Sourceforge hosted apps.
  

Project description

Regarding readability, the goal is to produce a code as nice and short as the pseudo-code found in textbooks or research papers. As an illustration, here is what the Euclidean algorithm would look like:

	Polynomial gcd(Polynomial p, Polynomial q) {
		while(q.signum()!=0) {
			Polynomial r=p.remainder(q);
			p=q;
			q=r;
		}
		return p;
	}

It entails a dedicated development effort. This choice of clear coding, enabled by java, may have consequences in terms of performance compared to other software. But it could be worth the commitment, in the respect that understanding an algorithm just by looking at the code is made possible. Object-orientation allows to hide ugly optimizations behind a clean, easy to use interface.

Some may doubt however that java will ever be as clear as C++ because it doesn't provide operator overloading, which means that a+b is written a.add(b), and will remain as such. The interested reader can look at the on-going discussion on the matter at Sun.

As for portability, it means that a lot of platforms are available at no cost, from powerful unix workstations or servers to handheld devices. To make it possible, the project is split in two parts : the engine (jscl) and the mathematical editor front-end (meditor). The engine is usable interactively or in batch mode from a java shell interpreter (like BeanShell for instance), or as a java library in any third-party application.

The front-end has currently two implementations (see below). Among others, it is intended for taking course notes. With it, a student can perform the calculations asked by their teacher fast and reliably. The plain text format should make the exchange of notes easy. The produced worksheets can be published on-line thanks to the Copy to Wiki feature, for instance on meditorworld.

Implementations

• j2se/swing for desktop platforms

• Native jump/pilotjfc/wabajump for PalmOS

Symbolic capabilities

• polynomial system solving
• vectors and matrices
• factorization
• derivatives
• integrals (rational functions)
• boolean algebra
• simplification
• geometric algebra
• java code generation
• graphical rendering of math expressions
  

Download

Installation

Desktop version (v3.0 onward)

PalmOS version (up to v2.3)

To have the data persisted, create an entry in the memopad with the word "meditor" (+return) on the first line. The memo.csv that you can optionally install (via your desktop application import) has such an entry and several other memos containing the documentation.

Dependencies

Papers

Acknowledgements

Related projects

Contact

Copyright

The GNU General Public License

last updated on mon Jun 15 2009