Symbolic mathematical computation: a survey
Abstract
The impact of high-speed computers on the scientific community over the past 25 years has been well documented. Their successful use for numerical computations in a number of areas of engineering and the sciences was followed by an interest in their being employed for 'literal' or symbolic computations. Problems in celestial mechanics, mathematics, and theoretical physics already pointed to the desirability of having such a capability. A number of systems for symbolic computation began to appear in the early 1960's. By 1965, sufficient interest in this area had developed to warrant the formation by the Association for Computing Machinery of the ACM Special Interest Group on Symbolic and Algebraic Manipulation (SIGSAM). During the next ten years, the field exhibited considerable growth as some of these early systems were revised, additional systems were introduced, and new symbolic capabilities were implemented. This has led to an ever-increasing use of symbolic computation on a wide variety of applications.
References
[1]
Floyd, R. W., ed., Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Symbolic and Algebraic Manipulation, (published in the Communications of the ACM, Vol. 9, No. 8, August 1966), Association for Computing Machinery, New York, 1966.
[2]
Petrick, S. R., ed., Proceedings of the Second Symposium on Symbolic and Algebraic Manipulation. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, 1971. (These Proceedings remain a fairly comprehensive picture of the field of symbolic and algebraic manipulation. Some articles from these Proceedings were published in the August 1971 issue of the Communications of the ACM {2C}, and in the October 1971 issue of the Journal of the ACM {2J}).
[3]
Jenks, R. D., ed., Proceedings of EUROSAM 74, (published as SIGSAM Bulletin, Vol. 8, No. 3, August 1974). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, 1974.
[4]
Barton, D., and Fitch, J., "Applications of Algebraic Manipulative Programs in Physics", Reports on Progress in Physics, Vol. 35, No. 3 (1972), pp. 235--314.
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Griesmer, J. H., and Jenks, R. D., "Symbolic Mathematical Systems", in preparation.
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Hall, A. D., "The ALTRAN System for Rational Function Manipulation--A Survey", in {2C}, pp. 517--521.
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[21]
Caviness, B. F., and Collins, G. E., "Symbolic Mathematical Computation in a Ph. D. Computer Science Program", SIGSAM Bulletin, Issue No. 23, July 1972, pp. 25--28.
[22]
Caviness, B. F., ed., "SAM Course Outlines", SIGSAM Bulletin, Vol. 8, No. 4, November 1974, pp. 15--25. (A collection of outlines of 16 courses taught in different colleges and universities which contain material in the area of symbolic and algebraic manipulation.)
[23]
Jenks, R. D., "Course Outline: Yale University, New Haven", SIGSAM Bulletin, Vol. 9, No. 3, August 1975, pp. 9--10.
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Copyright © 1976 Author.
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Association for Computing Machinery
New York, NY, United States
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Published: 01 May 1976
Published in SIGSAM Volume 10, Issue 2
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