This repo is read-only and for historical reference. The original maintainer is now deceased and the project appears to have been dropped.

If you with for this project to continue, please fork the project.

                              Mathomatic
                       Computer Algebra System

This file can be found in the Mathomatic source code directory, or at http://mathomatic.org/README.txt for the most recent version.

This archive contains the complete C source code and documentation for Mathomatic, the automatic algebraic manipulator. Mathomatic compiles and runs under any operating system with a C compiler and is very portable. There are no dependencies other than the standard C libraries. Using the GNU make utility or shell scripts, this text mode application should compile with the GNU C compiler (gcc), Tiny C compiler (tcc), or MinGW, and run correctly under Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and many mobile devices, without any modifications, except to the compile/install command-lines.

Most of the Mathomatic code can also be called from any C compatible program, when linked with Mathomatic specially compiled as a symbolic math library (see directory "lib").

Mathomatic is a free, portable, general-purpose Computer Algebra System (CAS) and calculator software that can symbolically solve, simplify, combine, and compare algebraic equations, simultaneously performing generalized standard, complex number, modular, and polynomial arithmetic, as needed. It does some calculus and is very easy to compile/install, learn, and use. Plotting expressions with gnuplot is also supported.

New users: try typing "help examples". There are many interesting Mathomatic scripts in the "tests" directory, that show what Mathomatic can do, and they teach some mathematics, too.

                               Licenses
                               --------

All Mathomatic software and documentation in this archive are copyrighted.

The Mathomatic documentation in the "doc" directory is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) version 1.3, with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts, so it can be easily published, corrected, and translated by anyone.

The Mathomatic software and all else are licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 2.1 (see file "COPYING" for the full text of the license). That means Mathomatic is free software and comes with no warranty at all, but if you find any errors in it, I will try to fix it. LGPL also means that even closed-source, proprietary software can include and make use of the Mathomatic symbolic math library, but please tell the chief author (George Gesslein II) if you are using Mathomatic in your software.

                              Compilation
                              -----------

This section can be skipped; you may wish to jump to the next section with short compile/install instructions or read the file "INSTALL.txt", if you only wish to install Mathomatic.

On a Debian or Ubuntu Linux computer, the "build-essential" and readline development packages "libreadline-dev" are required to compile Mathomatic with readline functionality. To open a shell window in desktop Linux, launch Applications/Accessories/Terminal. Makefiles are text files named "makefile", read by GNU make, used to build and install software as requested and needed; reading the comments contained within them is often helpful when using makefiles.

The latest Mathomatic source code may be downloaded from:

http://www.mathomatic.org/math/download.html

To extract and use the Mathomatic source code archive, make a new directory, copy the archive to it and change directory to it, and extract the archive with the unzip or tar utilities. unzip and tar extract to the current directory, so be sure to change directory (cd) to where you want it, before extracting. With "am.zip", be sure it is an empty directory, or you will end up with a mix of many files and directories. All other archives on Mathomatic.org properly put the files under a single directory created by the archive, but "am.zip" puts many files in the current directory and a few subdirectories.

To compile Mathomatic without readline support, type the name of the GNU make utility (either "make" or "gmake", depending on the operating system) at the shell prompt while in the Mathomatic source code directory. This will compile the C source code using the instructions in file "makefile" to create the executable file named "mathomatic". To run Mathomatic, type "./mathomatic" at the shell prompt. No other files are needed to run Mathomatic, so the executable can be copied to anywhere you like.

To test most functionality, type "make test" or "./t". If no errors are encountered, "All tests passed 100% correctly." will be displayed, along with the total run time. Otherwise the differences from the expected output will be displayed.

To recompile with readline, which allows editing and history recall of all Mathomatic line input by pressing the arrow keys, type:

make clean
make READLINE=1

That allows use of the cursor keys to recall and edit previously entered and pushed expressions when running Mathomatic. A readline library must be installed to compile for and use readline.

To create the compile-time secure version of Mathomatic, with readline functionality and no file I/O nor shelling out possible, type:

./compile.secure

That will create the executable "mathomatic_secure", which can safely be used as a telnet application or CGI program. The run-time security option "mathomatic -s4" functions the same as "mathomatic_secure", so this secure version compilation is not ever required.

                              Installation
                              ------------

A typical compile/install is done by typing the following at the shell prompt, while in the Mathomatic source code directory:

make clean
make READLINE=1
make test
sudo make m4install

That will compile the source code with readline enabled, test the functionality of the generated executable (named "mathomatic"), and install all executables, docs, and tests in "/usr/local" in less than a minute.

To clean, compile, test, and install the Mathomatic Prime Number Tools:

cd primes
make flush
make
./t
sudo make install

To restore the Mathomatic distribution directory to pristine condition, type:

make distclean

To uninstall all installed Mathomatic files from the local computer, type:

sudo make uninstall

There are quite a few math goodies in this archive, besides the main Mathomatic program:

The directory "doc" contains the Mathomatic User documentation in HTML. The directory "examples" contains example source code in C and Python. The directory "icons" contains Mathomatic icons for your desktop. The directory "lib" contains the API and test for the Mathomatic library. The directory "m4" contains the m4 (macro) Mathomatic supporting files. The directory "menu" contains the Debian Menu System files for Mathomatic. The directory "misc" contains a bug list and an idea list, etc. The directory "primes" contains a prime number generator utility, etc. The directory "tests" contains Mathomatic test and example scripts.

The "tests" directory is a good directory to visit to learn things about math and Mathomatic.

For quick help while running Mathomatic, type "?" or use the help command. To read or print the user documentation, point your web browser to the file "doc/index.html", or "/usr/local/share/doc/mathomatic/html/index.html" if Mathomatic was installed. When copying the Mathomatic documentation, please copy the entire doc or html directory, not just selected HTML files from it.

For the most recent source code, binaries, documentation, information, and other help, please visit the Mathomatic website: "http://www.mathomatic.org", or its mirror site "http://mathomatic.orgserve.de/math/".

This README was written by George Gesslein II, chief author and maintainer of Mathomatic:

email: gesslein@mathomatic.org or georgegesslein@gmail.com

postal address: George Gesslein II P.O. Box 224 Lansing, New York 14882-0224 USA

The author is happy to help people and other gentle beings with any problems using this software. If you get stuck or find an error, send email to George Gesslein II.

Please report suspected bugs in Mathomatic to the author via email, or on the Launchpad website: "https://launchpad.net/mathomatic". Launchpad features a complete bug management system. Mathomatic should always give correct, simple, and beautiful answers; if not, please report it.

Many thanks to Jochen Plumeyer ("http://www.plumeyer.org") for donating server space and services on the mirror site for a very long time. See the "AUTHORS" file for people who have contributed code back to the Mathomatic project.

         Compile-time defines for the Mathomatic source code
         ---------------------------------------------------

To compile Mathomatic for a desktop operating system like Unix, GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, or any POSIX compliant OS, define UNIX on the C compiler command line with "-DUNIX". To compile Mathomatic for a generic system, simply compile with none of these defines. To compile for Microsoft Windows with the MinGW gcc compiler, define MINGW for a completely stand-alone executable. To compile for Microsoft Windows using CygWin, define CYGWIN; note that compiling for CygWin will require the presence of CygWin to run the resulting executable. To compile for embedded systems, or handhelds like the Nintendo DS, or smartphones like the iPhone and Android, define HANDHELD for reduced memory usage.

Define READLINE and include the readline libraries at link time to use readline mode, allowing easy command-line editing and history recall by pressing th

Mathomatic

Install / Use

README