Math::Symbolic
==============

Math::Symbolic is intended to offer symbolic calculation capabilities
to the Perl programmer without using external (and commercial) libraries
and/or applications.

Unless, however, some interested and knowledgable developers turn up to
participate in the development, the library will be severely limited by
my experience in the area. Symbolic calculations are an active field of
research in computer science.

The module supports compiling Math::Symbolic trees to fast Perl or C code.

Version 0.116 of this module has been used in conjunction with Math::Complex
to offer symbolic calculation with complex numbers. Please have a look at
the enclosed example scripts.

Version 0.119 introduced some calculus related subroutines including
the symbolic computation of Taylor Polynomials and the associated errors from
Math::Symbolic trees.

Vectorial calculus including gradients, divergence, rotation, Jacobi- and
Hesse matrices, Wronskian Determinants, directional derivatives, total
differentials, and two dimensional Taylor Polynomials is supported by the
Math::Symbolic::VectorCalculus module which is part of the distribution but
not loaded by default.

Similarily, algebra related functions like determinants are offered by
Math::Symbolic::MiscAlgebra.

Using the Math::Symbolic::Custom::LaTeXDumper distribution from CPAN, it is
possible to dump Math::Symbolic trees as LaTeX formulae!

You are encouraged to visit http://search.cpan.org and search for
'Math::Symbolic'. You will find various extension modules!

INSTALLATION

To install this module type the following:

   perl Build.PL
   ./Build
   ./Build test
   ./Build install

On platforms that don't support the "./" notation, that would be:

   perl Build.PL
   perl Build
   perl Build test
   perl Build install

If you wish, you may use the old MakeMaker style instead:

   perl Makefile.PL
   make
   make test
   make install

Since version 0.501, we include support for a new, faster
Parse::Yapp based parser. By default we use the old parser, but
if you would like to test the new parser, run the tests as
follows:

  TEST_YAPP_PARSER=1 ./Build test

DEPENDENCIES

This module requires these other modules and libraries:

  Test::More
  Exporter
  Parse::RecDescent
  Memoize

SEE ALSO

Current versions of this module may be found on http://steffen-mueller.net or
CPAN. The development takes place on Sourceforge at
http://sourceforge.net/projects/math-symbolic

Please send your suggestions, inquiries, and feedback to
math-symbolic-support at lists dot sourceforge dot net. Feel free to
subscribe to the developers mailing list:
math-symbolic-develop at lists dot sourceforge dot net

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

Copyright (C) 2003-2007 Steffen Mueller

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the same terms as Perl (5) itself. 

CONTRIBUTIONS

Steffen Müller, symbolic-module at steffen-mueller dot net
Stray Toaster, mwk at users dot sourceforge dot net
Oliver Ebenhöh