Extended muSIMP/muMATH for teaching and learning mathematics

Abstract

muSIMP is described by its authors (David Stoutemyer and Albert Rich, of the Soft Warehouse, Honolulu. Hawaii) as a “surface language” for muLISP. The latter is one of their earlier products, a LISP interpreter and development system for microcomputers. muSIMP has a very different syntax from LISP, although in other respects it is effectively the same language. A “conventional mathematics” appearance is clearly helpful to users. muSIMP offers f (x, y, z) where LISP would require (f x y z), for example, and the assignment “A: B + C ∗ D;” is obviously nearer to most mathematics students' experience than the LISP equivalent, “(SETQ A (PLUS B(TIMES C D)))”. muMATH is a large library of muSIMP function and variable definitions. It permits the user to carry out symbolic algebraic operations including algebraic simplification, logarithmic and trigonometric expansion, equation solving, vector and matrix manipulation, differentiation, integration, limits and summation. All of this software can be extended as required by the user, so that new rules for differentiating or integrating can be added, for example. muSIMP does not, as sold, possess graphics capability, XSIMP, the author's extended version of muSIMP, for the RML 380Z (CP/M system) includes all the Research Machines Level 2 graphics functions, retaining a correspondence of names and order of parameters. XSIMP also contains a full floating-point arithmetic package, with the four arithmetic operations complemented by exponential, logarithmic, trigonometric and square root functions. Functions have also been provided in XSIMP for making BDOS and BIOS calls to CP/M.