From: jbb@notatt.com   
      
   Richard Fateman wrote on 8/15/2017 9:02 AM:   
   > 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?   
      
   I believe that ordinary engineers in a variety of disciplines form ODE   
   problems as a work-a-day activity. It may seem strange but most cannot   
   do these Sophomore exercises at all. Those who can are considered   
   eccentric and/or brilliant. Matlab and other such packages with far more   
   than OED solving capabilities are used by most for simple paper and   
   pencil problems where only those eccentric or brilliant ones get full   
   value from the software. The carry over skill from an OED class is   
   pretty much the same as from many others: the ability to formulate a   
   problem within a framework with known approaches to solutions.   
   --   
   Jeff Barnett   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)