Maple vs Mathematica questions: symbolic & MacOS aspects only.

From: Hubert Holin (Hubert.Holin_at_meteo.fr)
Date: 06/02/04 

Date: Wed, 02 Jun 2004 12:13:59 +0200

Somewhere in the E.U., le 02/06/2004

   Bonjour

      A long time user of Maple, working under MacOS, I feel the time
has perhaps come to change CAS. I am thus looking for information (NOT
FLAMES, please) on whether I should now do so.

      Briefly, I currently do symbolic computations using Maple, and
numeric computations using Matlab. I will keep on using Matlab at this
point due to mission constraints, so I am only investigating the
symbolic (as opposed to numeric) aspects of the problem.

      I am aware that Mathematica is supposed to be much more powerful
than Maple where numerics are concerned. I did not look into financial
details (is there a price gap between the two?). I am familiar with
Maple's possibilities, but not with Mathematica's. The Wolfram Research
website does not seem to contain *detailed* information of the symbolic
capacities of Mathematica. I have not yet downloaded a demo version of
Mathematica, but will do so.

      There is supposed to be a bridge between Matlab and Maple, but it
is not working on the Mac, at least with the versions I have (Maple 5 to
9, Matlab 5.2.1), and I do not own the symbolic toolbox for Matlab
(which is always built upon an older version of Maple), so the lack of
link (if any) between Mathematica and Matlab would not be an issue. At
any rate, the need for such direct link has been fairly low in my
workaday existence (and when it did crop up, I went from symbolic to
handwritten C++ implementation, to Matlab exploitation of output).

      A converter from Maple documents to Mathematica documents would be
nice, but not strictly a necessity. Is there one?

      How do Maple and Mathematica compare, from a symbolic viewpoint,
in term of breadth of field covered (base package, add-ons?), efficiency
of solving algorithms, number of prominent bugs? Can any symbolic
computation carried out under Maple be carried out under Mathematica? If
not, which kinds fail? Any important gotchas to be aware of?

      From a Mac user point of view, I must say I am sorely disappointed
by what I perceive is the lack of commitment (I remember the long dearth
of upgrades between 7 and 9) and reactivity of Maplesoft towards my
platform of choice (which will *NOT* change). I have the impression that
Wolfram Research is better in that respect, is this true?

      Finally, part of my current insatisfaction with Maple undoubtedly
comes from a feeling that Maplesoft may have been highjacked a couple of
years ago by a bunch of marketing bozos out there to milk us for what
we're worth, an insatisfaction culminating with the 9.5 upgrade
disgrace. I have heard that Wolfram Research is quite wolfish as well.
Would I be changing a blind horse for an unseeing one? Am I completely
wrong in my assumptions? Also, there is a community of astoundingly
helpful individuals knowledgeable with Maple, is there one as well with
respect to Mathematica?

   Merci

         Hubert Holin