From kde-edu-devel  Tue Apr 30 10:16:15 2002
From: Christian Parpart <cparpart () surakware ! net>
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 10:16:15 +0000
To: kde-edu-devel
Subject: Re: [kde-edu-devel] First Announcement Of KMathCenter
X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-edu-devel&m=102017952604116

Hi Dominique,

dominique devriese inspired the electrons to say:
> Op dinsdag 30 april 2002 11:12, schreef Christian Parpart:
> > And exactly that's what I want. Tell me what derive is doing and what
> > you're missing here. So I'm going to implement it as soon as the time is
> > much :)
>
> Well, derive basically lets you define functions, and then lets you do all
> sorts of things with them (maybe you could add that: your prog seems to let
> the user input functions individually for every dialog...
> 1) plot them (you already have that)
> 2) integrate and derive them (you have deriving)

Oh that's internally used but not yet implemented for the Interface. That's 
the way functions can reference each other. It just need an interface :)

Integrating is planned but isn't as easy as derving is :(still design phase)

> 3) solve them (find the values of x for which the function reaches 0) (you
> don't seem to have that :)

That's easily implemented and partially done by the backend I implemented for.
This is what I mean with complete curve discussion. (I am sure you know what
I mean :)

> Frankly, i don't think derive is easy to use, though... If we have a math
> class on the computer, our first few minutes are always the teacher trying
> to explain how to operate derive, and next, he walks around telling
> students what buttons to push..
> In this respect, your prog seems much better: maybe you could make it even
> easier: make "discuss a function" a wizard, which lets the user input what
> he wants to know about the function, and then provide a tabbed dialog with
> all the information (just an idea...)

Okay, I'm a poor german and we normally say "Kurvendiskussion". I simply 
translated it to "curve discussion". But I'll use your suggestion thanks :)

> I think derive also supports working with matrices and such (i think this
> should prove really easy if you're wanting to implement: doesn't boost
> (www.boost.org) have a matrix class?)

Thanks for the link, because I didn't know much about them yet. I need to 
contact my math bible :)

> > I unfortunately can't image what you mean with "interactive". Tell
> > it me.
>
> No, that was about Kig, my prog: it lets you draw objects (circles,
> lines..., (soon locuses)), and then lets you move one or more of them, and
> see the effect on the others...
>
> > BTW: KMathCenter supports functions like IF() and self recursions
> > wich make it even possible to calculate or plot the signum function, abs
> > etc.
>
> an interesting program for you might be maxima:
> http://www.ma.utexas.edu/maxima.html
> it's a program like yours, written in emacs lisp, it has some more cool
> features like 3d plotting and such...
> it's not user friendly at all though

Oh, perhaps you didn't see that this is an initial version. Of course not as 
usefull as maxima or mathematica of course, but it intents to be :)

> domi
> ps: i've currently got lots of work to do on my own prog, but if i find
> some time, maybe i'll take a look at your code and fix some bugs or
> something... pps: i think your prog is a great idea, and from what i see,
> it looks quite good already... keep up the good work :)

<---- Thanks.

Greets,
Christian Parpart
http://www.surakware.net
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