Running Euler Math Toolbox on Linux Mint

Euler Math Toolbox is in my opinion the best free mathematical package, however it is for Windows and it does not fully run out of the box with the latest versions of Wine. Here are the few easy steps to fix this issue.

  1. Run “Synaptics Package Manager”
  2. If you have Wine already installed you can skip this test. Enter “Wine” without quotes in the quick filter box and press enter. Right click the first wine entry and select “Mark for Installation”
  3. Enter “Maxima” without quotes in the quick filter box and press enter. Right click the first wine entry and select “Mark for Installation”. Click the Apply button.
  4. Download the windows install for Euler Math Toolbox here, right click the file and “Open With” then “Open With Wine Windows Program Loader”
  5. Run Euler Math Toolbox with the desktop icon. Open the “Options” menu then “Symbolic Settings” then “Setup Maxima Call String…” and put “z:\usr\bin\maxima” without quotes in maxima executable line, click ok, and exit Euler Math Toolbox. Yes you need to close and reopen the app so that the new setting works.

You are done. You can test it with something simple like “&solve(x^2+1)” without quotes and Euler Math Toolbox should display the results as expected.

Excellent free alternatives to Maple and Mathematica

I was in office the other day and we do not have a license for Maple nor Mathematica so I decided to try the free alternatives, and I found two excellent ones.

1. Euler Math Toolbox (71MB) is the best option. It provides excellent numerical algorithms like remez to find the minimax polynomial approximation of a function for example. And it is also capable of symbolic calculations like calculating integrals, derivatives, dealing with linear algebra problems. The plotting and multiline commands are not as slick as what you can do in Maple or Mathematica but it is still an excellent software. I found the minimax algorithm to be more robust and easier to use than the Mathematica one for example, and basically as good as the one implemented in Maple

Example to plot a function:

plot2d(“sin(x)”,-Pi,Pi,>insimg)

Example to define and multiply a matrix:

A:=[1,1;0,1]; A.A

Example to use Maxima for polynomial expansion:

&expand((x-1)*(x-2)*(x-3))

Example to get the degree 2 minimax polynomial approximating sin(x) between 0 and Pi:

x=equispace(0,Pi,50); {t,d}=remez(x,sin(x),2); P=polytrans(t,d)

2. WxMaxima (32MB) is part of the default Maxima installation and proved to me the closest and best alternative to Maple in terms of symbolic and matrix calculations. At the same time it lacks some important numerical algorithms, which is why I prefer Euler Math Toolbox overall. But since its multiline handling is closer to Maple I still end-up using it for anything requiring flow controls and loops.

Example to integrate/differentiate a function:

integrate(sin(x),x); diff(sin(x),x);

Example to plot two functions:

wxplot2d([sin(x),cos(x)], [x,-5,5]);

Example to define and multiply a matrix:

a:matrix([1,1],[0,1]); a.a;

Example of polynomial expansion:

expand((x-1)*(x-2)*(x-3));

Example of solving for polynomial roots:

solve(x^3-6*x^2+11*x-6,x);

Example of simple computation loop:

array(res,8)$
z:7$
for i:1 thru 8 do ( res[i]:mod(z^i,8) )$
listarray(res);