Scot Gould

Scot Gould

1039 Reputation

15 Badges

12 years, 90 days
Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, Scripps College
Professor of Physics
Upland, California, United States
Dr. Scot Gould is a professor of physics at Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, and Scripps Colleges - members of The Claremont Colleges in California. He was involved in the early development of the atomic force microscope. His research has included numerous studies and experiments using scanning probe microscopes, particularly those involving natural fibers such as spider silk. More recently, he was involved in developing and sustaining AISS. This full-year multi-unit, non-traditional, interdisciplinary undergraduate science education course integrated topics from biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and computer science. His current interest is integrating computational topics into the physics curriculum. He teaches the use of Maple's computer algebraic and numerical systems to assist students in modeling and visualizing physical and biological systems. His Dirac-notation-based quantum mechanics course is taught solely through Maple.

MaplePrimes Activity


These are replies submitted by Scot Gould

@C_R I have not downloaded 2025.1 yet. If your problem happens again, does the "Windows menu key" + "Up arrow" work? It may not since there are many Windows-based features of a window in 2025 that do not. 

@Jwt
Here is another example of delaying the calculation of mod.

 Consider this function, which we think will produce a series of thick walls in a plot.

"f(x) := round(x) mod 2:  "

Plotting the function produces an unexpected outcome:

plot(f(x), x = 0 .. 5)

f(x) = round(x)

 

 

Why this result? That is before the plot is executed, f(x) is executed. The outcome is the round of a variable mod 2 is just the round of the variable.

 

'f(x)' = f(x)

f(x) = round(x)

(1)

 

In the second plot, by delaying the calculation of the modulus, we obtain a result we are more likely to expect.

plot('f(x)', x = 0 .. 5)

 

IMO, Maple is highly logical and readable. However, this aspect of Maple is challenging to grasp. It happens enough times that I thought an additional example might be educational.

 

Download Delayed_modulus.mw

@ecterrab @nm It fails on 3 Windows machines using multiple WiFi systems. All run Win11.  No VPN is on. And while kernelopts(version) produces

   Maple 2025.0, X86 64 WINDOWS, Mar 24 2025, Build ID 1909157

I hadn't yet installed the updatable Physics package yet. So, trying it out: Physics:-Version produces:

`The "Physics Updates" package is not available for the version of Maple under development`

which may be a clue. Something may still exist in there even though I was pretty sure I deleted all traces of the beta. 

I have enough experience to find that such odd-ball situations that happen to me occur to about 1 in 10 people who use Maple. I'm one of the few who complain about it. LOL!

Through @Christopher2222 's assistance, I was able to download the package via a web interface. Now, it appears I have to use the "trick" every time because when I write:

SupportTools:-Version(latest)

I get this wonderful response:

 Error, (in PackageTools:-Install) unable to locate package with MapleCloud identifier 4797495082876928

And yet it knows that I'm not using the most recent version because SupportTools:-Version() tells me so. 

@ecterrab Yes, @nm has told me that the LaTeX-generating code in Maple is good. (I recommend you read my response to nm before you read the rest of my response.) 

However, I see no reason why the typical user:

1) has to invest any energy in learning LaTeX,

2) cannot use the wonderful (and improved in 2025, in my opinion) interface of Maple to generate a TeX-quality PDF directly. 

As I mentioned to nm, as a PDF-generating user nearly every day, I feel the PDF-generation part of Maple has regressed since 2023. (I create the documents using the 2025 version, but print them using the 2023 version). I am hoping your work on creating the Maple to LaTeX translator can be used to generate better-looking PDFs in the next version of Maple. 

@nm 

Thank you for your highly informative response to my comment. It includes content that supports my opinion that for the researcher who writes papers with mathematical statements, there should be no need to invest energy in learning the commands of TeX, LaTeX, or REMTex. As an analogy, we no longer need to know how to write assembly language code to solve differential equations. Instead, one should be able to use a WYSIWYG interface to generate a publicly accepted document. Most of the journals of interest to me prefer PDFs, although several journals, including Science, accept only DOC files. (I know one that accepts Maple worksheets.)

So, if one is happy with one's Maple document, all one has to do is export/print to a PDF. No TeX coding is required. However, some people prefer the typesetting from a TeX system. Therefore, maybe the most pleasing sentence in your comment is that Maple generates good LaTeX. I'm sure the fine people of Maplesoft are pleased to hear that from someone who highly values this type of document generation. And you are saying that a couple of processing steps later the result is a TeX-quality PDF. 

Hopefully, Maplesoft will improve the PDF-generation section of Maple, which, in my opinion, has regressed since 2023. Maybe they can license the code to use a LaTeX to PDF converter so that the intermediate steps through another program are not required. (Did you not already suggest this?)  Then, they will have achieved  PDF document generation from a WYSIWYG interface without having to learn TeX code. 

@C_R Most of the time, if I am required to use Word, I also copy and paste screenshots of my Maple equations. Most of the time, they look perfectly adequate.

Many years ago, I invested time in learning and using TeX and then LaTeX. But later, I didn't need to use the system. So, like learning a foreign language, I forgot how to use it. A second learning and forgetting made me realize that unless one is fully committed at all times,  LaTeX isn't worth all the energy. Donald Knuth solved an important problem 60 years ago. It is an impressive solution. But, 50 years after the arrival of WYSIWYG, I strongly suspect Knuth doesn't believe we should still have to write hieroglyphics to obtain good mathematical symbols. 

Do it yourself.

 

Maple 2d input is so readable that most of the time, I don't have it generate an output. For example even if you use the Maple input prompt:

 

interface(imaginaryunit = I); `#mover(mi("v"),mo("&rarr;"))` := `<,>`(2, 3*I); A := Matrix(2, 2, {(1, 1) = 1, (1, 2) = 0, (2, 1) = I, (2, 2) = -1})

What is  

A.`#mover(mi("v"),mo("&rarr;"))`

Vector[column](%id = 18446884436878630414)

 

I can hand this document to most any non-Maple user and they can read it. (Try that with another  system.)


Download readability.mw

@C_R Have them use Maple. 😁

(All kidding aside, students have reported that during summer research experiences where they are required to use the most popular engineering programming environment, they are astonished by how much more work is required in this environment compared to what is required in Maple. And it is so much more readable. 

I have a colleague who is so impressed with what can be performed in Maple and the readability of Maple that he has spent hours changing the operators of Mathematica to match my Maple worksheets. My colleague is particularly impressed with Edgardo's Physics packages.)

I prefer vector signs over the variables. An arrow is more noticeable than a bolding. Maple can do that.

@Christopher2222 I believe the version # is irrelevant. I installed the version 13 code from Sunday on a different machine, but it downloaded version 15, which is the most current. 

It appears that simply distributing this code to the students will be sufficient. Once again, I appreciate your assistance. 

@ecterrab MapleCloud does not remember me. So, if I sign in and use the cloud to access my cloud files, I can retrieve them. However, even if the cloud is open, if I click on My Files in Maple, it will open a new cloud window and tell me to log in.

If I choose not to sign in, I can see the packages and try to download, but I receive the same error: An error occurred, the package was not installed: Unable to log into Maplesoft account: Forbidden (403)

I'm just happy there is an alternative solution. I can distribute the downloaded file from the "website" and have my students upgrade to a newer version from there. 

@ecterrab Thank you for your recommendations, but there is no change. 

1) I deleted the toolbox

2) Logged onto MapleCloud without a problem. I even found my own files that I had uploaded.

3) Found the little down-arrow cloud for the package.

It failed with: 

An error occurred, the package was not installed: 
Unable to log into Maplesoft account: Forbidden (403)

4) Closed Maple and re-opened it. 

5) Tried PackageTools:-Install(4797495082876928)  and received:

Error, (in PackageTools:-Install) unable to locate package with MapleCloud identifier 4797495082876928

The only system that has worked is the one @Christopher2222 recommended. I'm sort of glad it failed for me. By exploring all the options, I can assist others. I cannot believe I'm the only person who is going to experience this problem. I say this because my attempts to install this package have failed on multiple machines. 

@Christopher2222 Thank you. Yes, that worked. I downloaded it to the desktop (Windows) and set the working directory to the Desktop. Not a problem using exactly what you had written. 

Before installing it, I'm not sure how I would have thought to download version 13.

I'm a bit annoyed. The process should be simple and work 99.99% of the time. 

@aroche I have been unable to download the package from the cloud, nor use either of the package numbers to install it. Has the package number changed? If so, what is it?

Update: on one machine, after closing and reopening Maple 2025, this command did work:

PackageTools:-Install(4797495082876928)

I don't know why, but it might be useful for others. 

Update 2: Attempting the same command on a second machine generated the error of "unable to locate package with MapleCloud identifier 47..." 

So, it is now a hit or miss situation for me. Maybe Monday will be better. 

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