ANNOUNCEMENT: Macsyma 2.2 Understands English ---------------------------------------------- ARLINGTON, MA (January 29, 1997) Macsyma 2.2 is now shipping on PCs with Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and Windows NT. New features of the product are summarized below. 1 Macsyma Understands Plain English Macsyma(R) 2.2 math software lets users solve math problems by posing questions in "plain" English. Users can enter a query in their own words on the command line, and Macsyma responds with executable "MathTips(tm)" on how to solve the problem. For example, "Show me how to find the roots of my polynomial" produces a list of problems-with- solutions, text descriptions and corresponding input commands. The tips can often be applied to a problem without typing anything beyond the initial query. Macsyma Inc. believes that Macsyma 2.2 can sharply reduce the time and energy required to solve problems with math software. 2 Other Ease of Use Enhancements The help system in Macsyma 2.2 is expanded. It includes 1,200 MathTips; 700 fill-in command templates; over 1,100 menu-accessible, executable examples; a topic browser; and thousands of hyperlinked help topics. (Macsyma also autoloads virtually all external libraries, including user-written libraries, which also contributes to ease of use.) 3 Notebook Enhancements Macsyma 2.2 has text formatting styles and graphics styles that collect many changes in attributes of text or graphics. (A typical 3D plot has about 250 settable attributes.) Macsyma notebook hypertext links to every file type known to Windows and to any World Wide Web URL. Macsyma 2.2 has DataViewers(tm) which allow users to import, export, view, edit, analyze, and plot large numerical data in scientific notebooks. The DataViewers now have better interchange of data between tables of data and graphics. 4 Fast Numerical Linear Algebra Macsyma 2.2's optional add-on product, NumKit(tm), speeds up most large numerical matrix operations. NumKit, based on the LAPACK library from Netlib, adds automatic storage management and subroutine dispatching based on data type of input, and is fully integrated into the Macsyma environment. 5 Finite Element Analysis Integrated into Macsyma Notebooks Macsyma 2.2's companion finite element analysis (FEA) product, PDEase2D(tm), is fully integrated into Macsyma's scientific notebook interface. Macsyma and PDEase2D can perform calculations in the same notebook. Macsyma can pre-process symbolic equations and post-process numerical data from PDEase2D. This is the first time a FEA package has been fully integrated with a general-purpose symbolic-numerical mathematics package. Macsyma 2.2 has many other improvements in symbolic and numerical mathematics. A student edition of Macsyma is available. For more information please visit our Web site at http://www.macsyma.com. Note: Macsyma Software Service Customers will receive an upgrade to Macsyma 2.2 in late February. ---------------------------------------------------------- Commercial & government users and all users outside the U.S. and Canada, please contact: Macsyma Inc. 20 Academy Street Arlington, MA 02174-6436 U.S.A. tel: 617-646-4550 800-macsyma (800-622-7962) fax: 617-646-3161 email: info@macsyma.com URL: http://www.macsyma.com ---------------------------------------------------------- END