[Axiom-developer] (Fwd) Some news about MuPAD

[michel . lavaud]

Hello,

As there was interest about MuPAD on this list, I forward a message I
received from Benno Fuchssteiner, for the latest news.

Best wishes

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:              Sat, 17 Dec 2005 18:03:56 +0100
To:                     address@hidden
From:                   "B. Fuchssteiner" <address@hidden>
Subject:

Dear MuPAD friend,

At the occasion of the coming holiday season let me give you some
information about the state and the fate of MuPAD.

So far, nothing has changed fundamentally since I put my internet
documentation on the web. Here are some points which might find you
interest:

Fortunately I was able to find the resources for employing my MuPAD
colleagues for the time until end of March. After March the situation
looks very dim, however there are some signs of hope (and I am an
indestructible optimist).

The students of Paderborn University have started a campaign in order
to support MuPAD, which you may find under
<http://savemupad.neoforge.de/>http://savemupad.neoforge.de/ At that
web page they are collecting signatures.  The organizers of that
initiative (who are not personal known to me) however informed me that
they are surprised about the amount of political implications which
have arisen. I do not believe that this action will lead to much
success; however I am extremely grateful about that support since it
certainly helps us to keep up our spirit. I should also say, that my
confidence in the students of  Paderborn University has never wavered.

The German special interest group on computer algebra,  representing
three of the most prestigious scientific unions, namely GI
(Gesellschaft für Informatik),  GAMM (Gesellschaft für Angewandte
Mathematik und Mechanik), and the DMV (Deutsche Mathematiker
Vereinigung)  has written an open letter on behalf of MuPAD to the
authorities of Paderborn University, the  government of
Northrhine-Westfalia and  a number of influential politicians.  So far
there is not yet any success of that action, apart from a mendacious
answer of UPB (Paderborn University).  This answer also was written to
a MuPAD friend who directly intervened with Paderborn University, at
that occasion I asked for permission of UPB to publish that answer on
my Web page, but permission was declined, which I have to take serious
since still I am under thread that UPB will sue me for damage.
However, UPB did not yet sue me for stating on my web page that they
employed criminal methods in order to finish the MuPAD project,
neither did they contradict to that statement yet, although they were
asked by many to contradict or at least to comment on that claim.

Recently in the news section of Heise-Online, a most influential news
service, there was a report on the present difficulties of MuPAD, for
the English version see:

<http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/66442>http://www.heise.de
/english/newsticker/news/66442

To this news service many internet pages are linked, so in the week
after that news appeared more than 350 000 web pages were referring to
that headline.   By the same author an article in CT (Germanys most
prestigious Computer Journal, 440 000 sold copies)   appeared. I am
grateful for these articles which supported my efforts morally,
however knowing the system and realizing that the German public at the
moment is more interesting in other problems, I doubt that there will
be any effect.

Before the last election in our state (in Mai) I was impressed by the
promises of some of the politicians at that time in opposition to the
government. These promises made clear how much would change for
MuPAD
once the election was won. Well it was, but nothing has happened so
far. However, some of these politicians work hard on fulfilling these
promises but also they are surprised to see how difficult things are
to move once some anonymous administration and bureaucracy has decided
on its course.

Of course, and that is the most important point, we received much
moral support by direct mail from old friends and new users throughout
the world, a fact for which I am very grateful, since it helps to keep
up spirits  when prospect is so grim.  Also, some of these users
convinced their institutions to buy a MuPAD copy, help which also was
welcome.

I will inform you from time to time about the state and eventually I
will put new information on my web page (although I did not definitely
decide on that).

Please accept my best wishes for the coming season and for the best in
2006 and let me thank that so many of you supported MuPAD in the past,
yours sincerely Benno Fuchssteiner

Prof. Dr. Benno Fuchssteiner                      mailto:
address@hidden Obernheideweg 19
  http://mupad.de/ D 33106 Paderborn, Germany


Phone:
+49 (0) 5254-66835
Fax and answering machine:                                   +49 (0)
721 151 348516



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