Hi William, On Aug 16, 5:58 am, William Stein <wst...@gmail.com> wrote: > If somebody walked up to *you* and asked: "Is Sage now a viable > alternative to MATLAB?" what would you say? > I'm especially interested in what people who do numerical/applied > computation think. > > My answer: "It's very difficult for *me* to answer this question > myself, because MATLAB is useless for most of my own > teaching/research/work, but I realize it is very widely used in > applied mathematics. Based on going to Scipy and the resources I've > seen online, it appears that the Numpy/Scipy stack is extremely useful > to actual people doing numerical computation. Maybe I'll try > asking on sage-devel."
I am currently teaching numerical linear algebra at ANU (MATH3512: Matrix Computations), using Trefethen and Bau's Numerical Linear Algebra as a textbook. Trefethen and Bau, as you know, uses Matlab for its examples and exercises. My course switched from Scilab (a Matlab almost-clone) to Python/ IPython/ SciPy/ NumPy/ Matplotlib just this year. Each year, one issue keeps repeating: there is a spread of student backgrounds from non-programmer to programmer, and from non- mathematician to mathematician. The non-programmers often say that there is not enough explicit instruction in the programming aspects of the course. The course currently includes about one hour of lecture and 8 hours of computer labs devoted to learning programming, using the Python platform mentioned above. The labs are based on 6 of the tutorial worksheets written and used for MATH3511 Scientific Computing, which also switched to Python this year. I am encouraging my students to use ipython -pylab and to use NumPy matrices whenever possible. They will also be using sparse matrices. I have also demonstrated Sage to students in one of the computer labs. The idea of using the Sage Notebook interface via the Web is quite appealing, but I haven't tried switching the course to Sage because I am afraid of the complications involved in rewriting the tutorial materials and in running the labs. In particular, to run the labs successfully, would I need to know all the peculiarities and pitfalls involved in Sage coercion for linear algebra classes? Do matrices in complex double precision and real double precision produce the same results in Sage as the would using ipython -pylab ? Is it worthwhile to study the algorithm implementations used by Sage, as opposed to those in NumPy and SciPy alone? Another issue is that students want to be able to run their numerical software as standalone on their laptops. My course would need to help them install Sage on Windows, Mac and possibly Linux. Right now, the students are using Python directly on the Windows machines in the labs, and using ssh on the Macs in the labs to connect to a Linux- based cluster running Python, as well as running on their own laptops. I have encouraged them to try the Enthought Academic Download, to ease any installation difficulties. These are questions which I did not give myself enough time to study in the first semester before I had to start teaching in second semester. Perhaps if I start now, I can obtain a clearer idea of how to teach numerical linear algebra using Sage from next year onward. Would participating in a Sage Days help? -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
