Re: symbolic pkg help for degree

[Colin Macdonald]

On 03/01/16 13:40, Nicholas Jankowski wrote:
> Additionally, what the heck is MuPAD?  MATLAB seems to treat it as
> some stand alone program not part of core MATLAB or the core symbolic
> toolbox.

Mathworks bought MuPAD some years ago: it was a standalone CAS.
Mathworks use it in two ways:

1)  Last I checked, they maintain an essentially stand-alone "worksheet"
mode with its own GUI.  This uses the MuPAD language (i.e., not .m files)

2)  Using it as a backend for their Symbolic Math Toolbox.

> Is it inside the scope that Octave tries to maintain compatibility
> with?

No, we have no intention of being compatible with MuPAD.

More details: the Octave-Forge Symbolic Package uses SymPy as a backend.
 We have two goals:

A)  some compatibility with the Symbolic Math Toolbox.  In terms of
syntax at least.

B)  be a thin layer on top of SymPy.

Sometimes these goals are contradictory.  B) probably should win
long-term for maintenance reasons!  B) also implies we prefer to
fix/extend SymPy: there is no shortage of work to be done.

Colin