From: fateman@cs.berkeley.edu   
      
   Macsyma's ODE2 program was, I think, based on the recipes in Boyce &   
   DiPrima.   
   Probably those programs could be instrumented to be verbose along those   
   lines, but Nasser's stuff looks quite nice.   
      
   I believe that the rationale (for most people) to be forced to pass   
   a college (integral) calculus course is that a person who passes that   
   has to really know algebra, and algebra is a reasonable requirement.   
      
   The rationale (for science students) to  be forced to pass a course   
   in ordinary differential equations is that a person who passes that   
   has to really know calculus, and calculus is a reasonable requirement   
   for those students.   
      
   I know of no course that actually draws upon the ODE course in   
   that way.  Not complex variables, numerical analysis, PDEs,   
   etc.   
      
   The only subsequent activity that I know of that forces someone   
   to really know "sophomore ODE" stuff, is a requirement to be   
   a teacher of this material.  (I was assigned such a task in 1973,   
   re-learned that material, and with very few exceptions did   
   not use it again.)   
      
   So it may be fun to write programs to simulate sophomore   
   ODE students  (or their teachers), but my guess is that the   
   demand for solving the more peculiar ODEs is practically nil.   
   (The obvious ones tend to relate to well-known physical   
   processes.)   
      
   Thoughts?   
   RJF   
      
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