In MATLAB, I often use the subplot() command to make an array of multiple plots in a single figure.
In Maxima, we can achieve that by generating each of the subplots using gr2d(), and then putting them all together with a call to draw() or wxdraw():
There’s an optional columns argument — the subplots are drawn row-wise in an array with the specified number of columns:
And of course all this works for 3d plots using gr3d():
In Matlab and RStudio, I love the ability to recall a command I’ve already typed using the up arrow key. Today I discovered alt up arrow to do the same in wxMaxima!
This is really the best implementation of function templates I’ve seen in an IDE:
In wxMaxima, if I type inte and then ctrl shift k, I see a popup menu of possible completions. Choosing integrate results in an input cell template that looks like:
integrate(<expr>,<x>)
Pressing Tab highlights <expr> and I simply type the expression to be integrated. A second press of Tab key highlights <x> and I type the name of the independent variable.
But wait, there’s more: this works for any currently defined function—including user defined functions.
**UPDATE** In the newer versions of wxMaxima (since v15.10) Ctrl+Tab and Shift+Ctrl+Tab also trigger autocompletion.
Notepad++ is lots of people’s favorite text editor for Windows. I use it every day.
A little googling around led me to a Notepad++ user-defined syntax highlighting file for the Maxima language, written by David Scherfgen and shared at the Maxima-Discuss list.
I made a little change to the file that overcame a nagging difficulty — I found that .mac file extensions weren’t automatically being recognized upon opening.
Here’s a link to my modifed file.
To include Maxima syntax highlighting in Notepad++ do this:
I was looking recently at the PYPL PopularitY of Programming Language.
That site ranks popularity of programming languages (Java is #1) using Google Trends tools based on searches of the form <Language Name> Tutorial. I did my own Google Trend search, comparing the 3M of Computer Algebra Systems: Maple, Mathematica, and Maxima using the Tutorial criteria as at PYPL.
With the data from Google Trends, I computed the proportion of the total 3M monthly searches for each program. Here’s how that looks over time since 2004:
It appears to me that Maxima is slowly and steadily gaining with nearly 20% share, Maple is currently at about 30%, and Mathematica at 50%. Does anybody know what happened between 2006 and 2013 to account for the increase in popularity of Mathematica and decrease for Maple?
The MaximaList 