PDEs are hard to solve numerically, because you usually need to evaluate the derivatives. The errors are not smooth functions of the coordinates, so their deri

PDEs are hard to solve numerically, because you usually need to evaluate the derivatives. The errors are not smooth functions of the coordinates, so their derivatives tend to swamp the derivative of the solution. By contrast, ODE solving is about integrals, which add up the nearly equal quantities that derivatives subtract. In this area of numerical computing, the important part is still the user, and the program they use is mostly a matter of what's convenient.