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Macsyma is a computer algebra system that was originally developed from 1967 to 1982 at MIT as part of Project MAC and later marketed commercially. It was the first comprehensive symbolic mathematics system and one of the earliest expert systems; many of its ideas were later adopted by Mathematica, Maple, and other systems.
Development
The project was initiated in July, 1968 by Carl Engelman, William A. Martin (polynomial arithmetic) and Joel Moses (simplifier, indefinite integration: heuristic/Risch). Later major contributors to the core mathematics engine were:
Yannis Avgoustis (special functions), David Barton (algsys), Richard Bogen (special functions), Bill Dubuque (limits, Grobner, TriangSys, indefinite integration: Bronstein, power series, number theory, special functions, functional equations, pattern matching, sign queries), Richard Fateman (rational functions, pattern matching, arbitrary precision floating-point), Michael Genesereth (comparison, knowledge database), Jeff Golden (simplifier, language, system), R. W. Gosper (definite summation, special functions), John Kulp (plotting), Ed Lafferty (ODE solution, special functions), Stavros Macrakis (real/imaginary parts, system), Barry Trager (algebraic integration, factoring, Grobner), Paul Wang (polynomial factorization, limits, definite integration), David Y. Y. Yun, Gail Zacharias (Grobner), and Rich Zippel (power series, polynomial factorization, number theory, combinatorics).
Macsyma was written in Maclisp, and was, in some cases, a key motivator for improving that dialect of lisp in the areas of numerical computing, efficient compilation and language design. Maclisp itself ran primarily on PDP-6 and PDP-10 computers, but also on the Multics OS and on the Lisp Machine architectures. Macsyma was one of the largest, if not the largest Lisp program of the time.
Commercialization
In 1981, Moses and Richard Pavelle, an MIT staffer and proponent of applying Macsyma to engineering and science, proposed to form a company to commercialize Macsyma. However, MIT invoked an apparently novel policy preventing MIT personnel from profiting from MIT developments. In early 1982, Macsyma was licensed by MIT to Arthur D. Little, Inc., which became the broker for Macsyma and soon licensed Macsyma to Symbolics in late 1982, thereby keeping Macsyma out of the software catalog of its competitor in the Lisp Machine business, LMI. The business arrangement between Symbolics and Arthur D. Little required a royalty payment to ADL of 15% of Macsyma gross sales. This led to speculation on the desire of MIT and ADL to see MACSYMA prosper. Pavelle ran the MACSYMA division at Symbolics. The development of Macsyma continued at Symbolics despite the fact that it was seen as a diversion from the sales of Lisp machines, which Symbolics considered to be their main business. Macsyma sales and the leveraged sales of Lisp Machines reached 10% of overall sales at Symbolics within two years. However, pressure from within Symbolics soon led to the demise of Macsyma. Infighting between Symbolics founders and lack of business understanding soon led to the demise of Symbolics. When Symbolics folded, so too did the Macsyma division.Eventually Macsyma was also released for DEC VAX-11 computers and Sun Microsystems workstations using Berkeley's Franz Lisp.
In 1982, under pressure from contributor Richard Fateman, then at UC Berkeley, MIT licensed a copy of Macsyma to the United States Department of Energy, one of the major funders of Macsyma development. This version of Macsyma was called DOE Macsyma.
Macsyma, Inc., was founded in 1992 by Russell Noftsker (who had co-founded Symbolics). Macsyma Inc then purchased all rights to the Macsyma program away from the ailing Symbolics Inc. Under Richard Petti, Macsyma Inc accelerated its technical development and improved appearances, especially under Windows. Under heavy competition from Mathematica and Maple, Macsyma lost market share. In 1999, Macsyma was acquired by Tenedos LLC, a holding company. At present the holding company has not rereleased or resold Macsyma, but it continues to be distributed by Symbolics.
Available versions
There is also a GPL-licensed version, called Maxima, based on the 1982 version of the DOE Macsyma, subsequently adapted for Common Lisp and enhanced by W. Schelter. It is under active development, and can be compiled under several Common Lisp systems. Downloadable executables for Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OSX and other systems, including graphical user interfaces are available. Maxima does not include any of the numerous enhancements made to the commercial version of Macsyma between 1982-1999 (at least 50 man-years of work). Due to this, extensive effort may be required to port code from Macsyma to Maxima.
External links
- Symbolics, current Macsyma distributors
- Richard Petti's summary of the history of commercial Macsyma (remarks on the history of Macsyma by a cofounder of Macsyma, Inc.)
- * more from Richard Petti.''
- Maxima - a sophisticated computer algebra system (Maxima home page at SourceForge.net)
"Macsyma"