The Maple book (Q2770553)

Maple is an interactive computer algebra system for performing symbolic and numerical computations. This book may serve both as an introductory text and a reference to Maple 7, which was the current version at the time of publication of the book (recently superseded by version 8). Compared to the previous book on Maple by the same author [Maple V primer, release 4 (CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL) (1997; Zbl 0855.68045)], the text has been updated and substantially expanded. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe author's style of a straightforward, step-by-step exposition, based on illustrative examples, encourages reading the book in conjunction with the computer, experimenting with commands and exercises. Starting with a description of the interactive environment, the author shows how to use the system to solve high school algebra and calculus problems and describes Maple data types and graphing capabilities. A separate chapter provides a tutorial to the Maple programming language, including programming exercises with solutions and instructions on writing Maple packages. Chapters with more advanced topics address Maple packages dealing with differential equations, linear algebra, multivariable and vector calculus, complex analysis, special functions and statistics. The remaining packages are not covered in depth, there is only a brief overview in the last chapter. A list of relevant references, a glossary of basic commands and an index are given at the end of the book.