3 ms·

I would like to build a small CAS (Computer Algebra System) that is usable from the web. It could be used in education to plot functions, solve equations (algeb

I would like to build a small CAS (Computer Algebra System) that is usable from the web. It could be used in education to plot functions, solve equations (algebraic, ODEs, PDEs, ..), work with matrices, complex numbers, number theory, you name it. We need to come up with a decent DSL. My idea is that we would write the core of the app in Rust (so that it could be used in the web as wasm or locally). They key features would be: * Based on lean software. With a small footprint. * The project itself should be a teaching project. I would like to document all algorithms from Risch to numeric solvers in ODE * Free, open source, oriented towards education in mathematics I am a theoretical physicist and have been working as a computer programmer for the last 10 years. Money is not a concern anymore for me and I really have an urge to give back. Also I am happy to collaborate in any project in the intersection of mathematics, education, physics and programming. If you have a nice project you can have my axe!

kinow 5y ago
Sounds interesting! Maybe extend/improve/integrate desmos (used in khan academy by many), gnu octave, etc? Not sure if desmos has an offline version though.
- nhatcher 5y ago
  The desmos calculator is great! And very much in line with what I would want to do. Maybe it's just me being shy to approach someone on the project or the stupid "I want to do it myself" but I haven't tried to join any existing project. I always blame myself for not joining sympy back in the day when Ondřej Čertík first created it. GNU Octave is going in a slightly different direction, I wouldn't even know where to start. Thanks :)
tdekken 5y ago
Hi nhatcher, You might be interested in https://github.com/google/mathsteps https://github.com/google/mathsteps which is a CAS designed to automatically explain step-by-step a problem so that humans can learn from it. There is a presentation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnBae40DfjE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnBae40DfjE) and a post discussing the system if you are interested (https://blog.socratic.org/stepping-into-math-open-sourcing-our-step-by-step-solver-9b5da066ae36 https://blog.socratic.org/stepping-into-math-open-sourcing-o...). p.s. My comment from this thread also might be of interest to you: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29761667 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29761667
- nhatcher 5y ago
  Thanks! I don't think I have ever seen mathsteps. Looks like a great tool. I will have a look at it!.

kinow 5y ago

Sounds interesting! Maybe extend/improve/integrate desmos (used in khan academy by many), gnu octave, etc? Not sure if desmos has an offline version though.

nhatcher 5y ago
The desmos calculator is great! And very much in line with what I would want to do. Maybe it's just me being shy to approach someone on the project or the stupid "I want to do it myself" but I haven't tried to join any existing project. I always blame myself for not joining sympy back in the day when Ondřej Čertík first created it. GNU Octave is going in a slightly different direction, I wouldn't even know where to start. Thanks :)

tdekken 5y ago

Hi nhatcher, You might be interested in https://github.com/google/mathsteps https://github.com/google/mathsteps which is a CAS designed to automatically explain step-by-step a problem so that humans can learn from it. There is a presentation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnBae40DfjE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnBae40DfjE) and a post discussing the system if you are interested (https://blog.socratic.org/stepping-into-math-open-sourcing-our-step-by-step-solver-9b5da066ae36 https://blog.socratic.org/stepping-into-math-open-sourcing-o...). p.s. My comment from this thread also might be of interest to you: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29761667 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29761667

nhatcher 5y ago
Thanks! I don't think I have ever seen mathsteps. Looks like a great tool. I will have a look at it!.