Re: 1984 mulisp used on an emulator

[Paul Guertin <pg@sff.net>]

mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon) wrote:

> Olaf Marx wrote:
> 
> >I remember that there was a "native" Apple version of MuMath. 
>
> That is _very_ interesting!  I didn't know that it had been ported, and
> would like to know if there is a copy extant.

I used it once and might still have a copy somewhere. It ran on a custom
DOS caled ADIOS which was basically a trimmed-down version of DOS 3.3
(which left more RAM for the muMath program). I think it's one of the best
Apple II programs ever.

In 1996 Paolo Micossi posted the following to this newsgroup. I contacted
Mr. Dickey at the time but didn't buy a copy at the time. I don't know if
he still has distribution rights.

Paul Guertin
 
: From: micossi@vaxts0.ts.infn.it (Paolo Micossi)
: Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
: Subject: muMATH/muSIMP available
: Date: 2 Dec 1996 11:05 CET
: Message-ID: <2DEC199611054002@vaxts0.ts.infn.it>
: 
: [...]
: I've just discovered that a classic Apple II software is still
: being made/sold and I thought I should let you all know.
: The software is the muMATH/muSIMP system, a computer algebra/symbolic
: math package that originated on CP/M machines and is still currently
: manufactured and sold for PC-type machines under the assumed name
: of DERIVE. The CP/M version was released in 1979, and about one year
: later a native Apple II version was ready. The company that built
: the software (and still thrives selling DERIVE) was The Soft Warehouse.
: Microsoft sold its own licensed version of muMATH too.
: muMATH is fairly complete for a system that can run on a 64K (and
: possibly 48K) Apple ][+. It does algebraic and trigonometric
: manipulations, vector and matrix algebra, calculus (symbolic
: differentiation and integration) and more. Its capabilities can
: be expanded too, using the included language muSIMP. And it does it all
: faster than one would expect. OK, you DO have to wait a few seconds
: to see the output, but that is true of Mathematica too.
: In fact, I think that what muMATH does on a 64K, 1 MHz,
: 6502 machine is truly amazing.
: Now that I have duly praised muMATH, I can tell you the news:
: the University of South Carolina has got distribution rights for
: muMATH/muSIMP and will sell you a set of disks and manuals for
: US$50 + s/h. Shipping and handling is $10 for international orders,
: should be sensibly less for US orders. Note that muMATH requires one
: 5.25" disk drive (two recommended) and uses its own DOS, so it's
: not HD installable.
: The person to contact about muMATH is Ed Dickey; his e-mail address
: is
:                 Ed.Dickey@SC.edu
: 
: You can also write him at the address
: 
:                 Ed Dickey
:                 College of Education
:                 University of South Carolina
:                 Columbia, SC 29208 USA