It said in the blurb that sMath was like Mathcad.

But as a Mathcad user, I am not so sure.

It is a nice neat tool for doing calculations, but where is the symbolic evaluation?

Hello,

Actually, SMath has its own symbolic engine (see Symbolic calculations, please. However, this engine functionality is quite limited comparing to the engines included in Mathcad (Mapple, MuPAD).

Regards,
Radovan

Thanks Radovan,

I followed the link and found out about using the insert menu to add the arrow symbol. Then I found the arrow in the arithmetic toolbar.

And I tried writing x + 3 = 5 as in mathcad. OK

highlighted x and then the solve option appears in calculation menu.


It would be nice to have these commands in toolbars so that mathcad users can easily find them.


Having spent six months trying to write maths software, I want to congratulate the author on the progress so far. Very well done.

Hello,

Wrote

I followed the link and found out about using the insert menu to add the arrow symbol. Then I found the arrow in the arithmetic toolbar.

And I tried writing x + 3 = 5 as in mathcad. OK

highlighted x and then the solve option appears in calculation menu.

Unfortunately, solve from the Calculation menu, as well as solve() function, are not symbolically but numerically defined (btw, there is no symbolic integration in SMath - only symbolic derivation). Therefore, it is not working like in Mathcad:
You can do this by highlighted x in the equation and choose Calculation|Solve
[MATH=eng]x^2+5*x-6≡0[/MATH]
[MATH=eng]mat(-6,1,2,1)[/MATH]
which is the same as
[MATH=eng]solve(x^2+5*x-6≡0,x)—mat(-6,1,2,1)[/MATH]
but, unfortunately, this is not possible in SMath
[MATH=eng]solve(x+5*y≡8,x)—#@#[/MATH]
There were some posts about Xcas plugin, but only for handheld computers, where this is possible among some other symbolical functions and functionality. For desktop computers, there is no such functionality yet. There should be someone who is willing to make a plugin and to extend SMath with some available CAS systems - there is no such thing at the moment.

Wrote

It would be nice to have these commands in toolbars so that mathcad users can easily find them.

I did'n understand this, sorry. There is a panel to the right with toolbars: Arithemetic, Matrices...

Wrote

Having spent six months trying to write maths software, I want to congratulate the author on the progress so far. Very well done.

Considering this, I hope you would not mind if I ask you about the possibility to use SMath as a frontend and write your own plugins to extend it in the way you wish (and maybe to share them with us afterwards )

Regards,
Radovan

I was thinking of the person who has used Mathcad at work, or at university and does not have the cash to buy it for them self. It would be useful if SMath had a similar appearance.

I did the maths programming a long time ago (when PCs still wore nappies and had 640K of ram. It was all done on an Achemedies in BBC basic and ARM assembler. I am out of touch with modern languages.