Re: Symbolic Calculator for Mobile Devices

On Mon, 15 May 2006 17:26:29 +0100, Dave (from the UK) wrote:

Richard Fateman wrote:
I'm unclear on why you are spending time on this. The smallest
laptop probably weighs < 2 kilograms and is the size of a paperback
book. It can run Maxima, Maple, Mathematica. It has a keyboard
and mouse-equivalent. Sometimes it has a wireless internet and
phone access like Skype.

Very small laptops have a somewhat limited use. They are not really
suitable for things like Word. They are also very expensive compared to
the larger laptops. I've known people send serious money on small
laptops, find them of limited use and so buy larger ones.

Of course large laptops have their problems too.

I can't speak for a phone, but a PDA does seem to offer something here.
I see far more people using PDAs than very small laptops.

Any portable machine is a compromise. I've had luggable laptops
(pointless), sub 2Kg subnotebooks, pdas, etc. My current portable machine
is a Zaurus SLC-3100. Best option yet for me. Very small (fits in my
pocket), light (less than 8 ounces), yet has a keyboard and decent (though
small) screen, and a 4Gb hard drive. Great for trips, and meetings, and
for other times I have desktop machines.

To return to the topic, WxMaxima is available for these machines (uses
Xwindows) and I find it to be excellent. Much improved over old versions
of maxima in terms of ease of use, and it has the full range of ability of
maxima.


I've not found an X emulator for the PDA that was any use. If I could
run Mathematica on a UNIX box and display the result on a PDA it would
be nice.

This you can also do with a Zaurus or other linux-based PDA, as long as
you use Xwindows. Response of course depends on the speed of your
network; I would not run a graphical interface over a phone line.

Which only proves the small devices have the computational power for
these tasks. Mathematica used to run on DOS (1 MB), which is of course a
lot less than a PDA has.

Have you tried running mathematica on a 1-meg dos machine? We had 8 megs
and had many headaches back in the early 90s.

Formula 1 is another option, which was offered for Qtopia-based zauruses.
It seems that that was more to "help" students on exams, since it claimed
to do problems step-by-step, but I never tried it. It may or may not be
available for windows-based PDAs.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a
_`\(,_ | conclusion. -- George Bernard Shaw
(_)/ (_) |


.

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