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SymPy makes math fun again

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Re: SymPy makes math fun again

#71

Post by xigoi »

voz_ wrote: post #41
hgsgm wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You got an A for translating the problems into computer form? I'm glad you dropped out of that useless program.

This is a surprisingly toxic take. The goal of a program is to teach you real world skills grounded in understanding theory. If someone understands how to take a complex math problem and turn it into a computer program, and knows to reach for sympy - that feels far more useful and implies a solid enough understanding of the problem at hand.

It will bite you when you encounter a harder problem that can be solved using the same technique, but SymPy can't solve it.

Re: SymPy makes math fun again

#72

Post by xigoi »

paulpauper wrote: post #18
chongli wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just write: a, b, c, d, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z = var('a, b, c, d, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z') At the top of your Jupyter notebook, right after your import lines, and copy and paste it everywhere else. It's really not a big deal! You can always redefine these variables to other things later, if you need to. Mathematica costs $387 for the "home deskto…

Wolfram Alpha is free alternative for most uses. Good enough for most people.

Wolfram Alpha is freemium, not free.

Re: SymPy makes math fun again

#73

Post by auggierose »

okaleniuk wrote: post #64

Hello, OP here. I wrote a whole book around the idea that mathematics is understanding first and symbolic computation second. In Geometry for Programmers, SymPy does the grind for you in every chapter (except chapter 2). Initially, I was even going to omit all the math notation altogether and turn all the formulas into Python snippets. But several reviewers said that this is too much, so now there are formulas you ca…

I see that you don't use LaTeX for your formulas. Was that a choice of yours, or is it just not possible with Manning? I am asking because I would like to publish a book within the next year or so, and am wondering which route to go. It seems self-publishing gives you the most freedom.

Re: SymPy makes math fun again

#74

Post by texaslonghorn5 »

kalimanzaro wrote: post #54
vacuumcl wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who does research with computer algebra systems (mainly Wolfram Mathematica) many hours a day, I think that SymPy is still far behind Mathematica. The fundamental design of Mathematica based on replacement rules and a style of functional programming is quite difficult to beat in terms of ease of use. A few weeks ago I gave SymPy another try, and tried to implement a nested sum of the type 1 <= a_1 < ... <…

Wouldnt the following work in basic python: for a_k in 1 to n: for a_(k-1) in 1 to a_k: .... I'm a heavy user of Mma but there are better examples. Automating the rewriting of formulas to make them more concise is a big one. (But also not as straightforward as it could be, tradeoffs between conciseness, ease of reading and speed of implementation need to be triaged, similar to Lisp/APL. Maybe sympy still has a chance…

no because k is an argument and you have to pre-write k nested loops

Re: SymPy makes math fun again

#75

Post by samwestdev »

okaleniuk wrote: post #64

Hello, OP here. I wrote a whole book around the idea that mathematics is understanding first and symbolic computation second. In Geometry for Programmers, SymPy does the grind for you in every chapter (except chapter 2). Initially, I was even going to omit all the math notation altogether and turn all the formulas into Python snippets. But several reviewers said that this is too much, so now there are formulas you ca…

Your book looks really interesting. Do you think it would be appropriate for a complete math/geometry beginner to read?

Re: SymPy makes math fun again

#76

Post by okaleniuk »

auggierose wrote: post #73
okaleniuk wrote: post #64

Hello, OP here. I wrote a whole book around the idea that mathematics is understanding first and symbolic computation second. In Geometry for Programmers, SymPy does the grind for you in every chapter (except chapter 2). Initially, I was even going to omit all the math notation altogether and turn all the formulas into Python snippets. But several reviewers said that this is too much, so now there are formulas you ca…

I see that you don't use LaTeX for your formulas. Was that a choice of yours, or is it just not possible with Manning? I am asking because I would like to publish a book within the next year or so, and am wondering which route to go. It seems self-publishing gives you the most freedom.

I should have used LaTeX from the start, yes. Manning accept manuscripts in LaTeX, moreover, they prefer to work with LaTeX formulas, and even if you write in MS Word, there is a pugin for LaTeX that they encourage you to use...

...and I learned all of that after the manuscript was done. That's on me, I should have been more inquisitive. Also, I should have asked about their style guide and technical requirements for the graphics. The book was supposed to be ready for printing sometime this month but now the launch is delayed till June since they have to redo 300+ graphics from scratch.

Self-publishing definitely gives you more freedom. But Manning also give you a development editor, a technical editor, a copy editor, a technical proofer, a copy proofer, plus a few dozen reviewers, and a whole production team. Writing for a publisher does feel like a deal with the devil, true, but it is not that bad of a deal.

If you want, write me a line (ok@wordsandbuttons.online) and we'll chat about publishing with Manning. Or without. My first book was published on Leanpub, and the second is available from wordsandbuttons.online directly.

Re: SymPy makes math fun again

#77

Post by okaleniuk »

samwestdev wrote: post #75
okaleniuk wrote: post #64

Hello, OP here. I wrote a whole book around the idea that mathematics is understanding first and symbolic computation second. In Geometry for Programmers, SymPy does the grind for you in every chapter (except chapter 2). Initially, I was even going to omit all the math notation altogether and turn all the formulas into Python snippets. But several reviewers said that this is too much, so now there are formulas you ca…

Your book looks really interesting. Do you think it would be appropriate for a complete math/geometry beginner to read?

No one is a complete beginner I suppose. If you did some geometry in school, maybe some basic algebra, if you know what a function is (and I think every programmer knows what a function is) - you're good to go.

Even if the book is called Geometry for Programmers, I was trying really hard to make it self-sufficient. E. g. if you want to get deep into fascinating stuff like NURBS, you need to know a little calculus. So there is a chapter on calculus. It is shallow by itself but it opens the door for power series, polynomial interpolation, and then Bezier, rational Bezier, and finally NURBS.

Just like that, before introducing homogeneous coordinates and projective matrices, I put a chapter on linear equations. In any other geometry book it would have been completely redundant, but it explains so much about 4 point transformations, I just had to put it there.

TL&DR I sure hope so! This was my intention and if the book isn't appropriate for a beginner, I failed miserably as an author.

Re: SymPy makes math fun again

#79

Post by ivansavz »

brrrrrm wrote: post #19

what’s nice is that pyodide folks have gotten sympy compiled to web assembly, so it’s a viable browser library too!

Yes, the SymPy live shell is based on pyodide and the jupyterlite shell:

https://live.sympy.org/ (recommend desktop browser, but works on mobile too)

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