[114] in mathematical software users group
Mathcad as a learning tool
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (alexp@MIT.EDU)
Fri Nov 5 14:22:42 1993
From: alexp@MIT.EDU
To: msug@MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 05 Nov 93 14:19:52 EST
Hello,
I have been investigating the use of Mathcad as a learning tool at MIT and
was wondering what other people's opinion of it is. It looks like the product
has evolved a long way from a relatively simple beginning on PCs to a powerful
tool now even incorporating symbolic math (Maple). We are mostly interested
in UNIX workstation versions (up to Mathcad 3.1 now).
I have been thinking about issues in a number of categories:
1. Functionality and feature list: this certainly seems rich and extensive
though occasionally idiosyncratic (for example, you can "dot product" two
column vectors but not two row vectors). I have not used it enough to
assess numercial accuracy in complex numerical calculations, or calculation
speed; anyone have any thoughts on this? What do you think of the graphics?
Do you see any features as "dead weight" that could be dropped?
2. User interface and display characteristics: I have seen font and
layout glitches fairly often; the "Window Refresh" command helps, but
it seems I need to use it a lot; there are a number of keystroke
sequences that are non-intuitive (things like control-F6), and some
that echo differently from keys pressed (like : for definition that
echoes as :=); one that caused me frustration for some time was the
matrix transpose operator, which is "control-1" and not "^T". some of
the keys referred to by name in the manual are not labelled as such on
some workstations (like PgUp, PgDown, Home).
3. Modes of usage: from a student perspective, it could be used as simply
another tool ("really fancy calculator") to be used at their own discretion
for various science/engineering assignments; or it could be made an integral
part of a course or lab (i.e. students are required to hand in assignments in
"Mathcad format"). From a faculty standpoint, it could be used as an
authoring tool for writing interactive lecture notes which could be displayed
on a projection system; copies could be given to students electronically in
lieu of lecture notes or even a textbook. It is this latter mode that we
currently see as the most appealing use of the product.
Along these lines, I have heard through the grapevine that in fact
Mathsoft is moving into the publishing business by authoring
"interactive textbooks" that are elaborations of their current
handbooks; I presume that along with this will come a "runtime only"
Mathcad version, that will allow users to run these applications
interactively, but not author new ones; the price will presumably be
competitive or lower that that of textbooks. Has anyone heard of
this, or have any ideas about how useful this will be?
Any thoughts on all of this welcome! I would also like pointers to recent
reviews of Mathcad in any of the trade mags.
Alex Prengel, Jr.
MIT Academic Computing Services
Software Acquisition Coordinator
