Re: [Axiom-developer] axiom opportunity

[Bob McElrath]

Page, Bill address@hidden wrote:
> Bob, 
> 
> On Tuesday, April 25, 2006 1:45 PM you wrote:
> > 
> > Bill Page wrote:
> > > Could you point me to some examples of these benchmarks?
> > > Identical pages rendered as MathML and jsMath? Are there
> > > some cases that are especially bad? Worse case?
> > 
> > I've never written down any numbers because jsMath pages take
> > many seconds, while MathML is always unnoticably fast.
> > 
> > Attached is one of my test pages, to be compared with:
> >     http://www.math.union.edu/~dpvc/jsMath/examples/TeXbook16.html
> 
> Thanks. Here are the same pages loaded on axiom-developer for
> easier comparison:
> 
> jsMath (2529 bytes) ->
> http://page.axiom-developer.org/TeXbook16.html
> 
> MathML (5861 bytes) ->
> http://page.axiom-developer.org/texbookch16.xhtml
> 
> Of course the actual number of bytes transferred in the case
> of jsMath can be quite a bit higher because of sending the
> font information.

Don't forget 100K for jsMath itself!

And, I am using the truetype tex fonts.

Given the propensity of computer algebra systems to generate truly
gigantic expressions, I think anything less than "blazingly fast" at
drawing the math is unacceptable.

Just for kicks I just put an expression I'm currently working with into
my TiddlyWiki+jsMath.  It's derived in Maple and about 4 pages long (a
polynomial).  It takes about 30s to render.  Maple is able to draw it on
the screen in an unnoticable fraction of a second.

If I type 'solve(a*x^4+b*x^3+c*x^2+d*x+e, x);' (just to name a
"reasonable" very long expression) and it takes 0.01s to give me the
roots of a quartic, and 30s to draw them on the screen, that is
unnaceptable.

> Hmmm... I have been testing this kind of thing using the new
> java-based Maple graphical user interface for almost two years
> now and the limitations of the current Maple implementation
> notwithstanding, I am even more convinced than I was before
> this "gui devolution" of Maple that this sort of user interface
> has little real value for users with even moderate experience.
> It just doesn't really have much to do with the "mathematics"
> that one actually does with these tools (at least what I do
> with them).

I agree.  In fact I always use the 'classic' worksheet because the java
one is such crap.

Just because a good interface hasn't been written yet doesn't mean that
one is impossible.  I still hold out hope.

--
Cheers,
Bob McElrath [Univ. of California at Davis, Department of Physics]

    "It is almost universally felt that when we call a country
    democratic we are praising it; consequently, the defenders of every
    kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they
    might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one
    meaning." -- George Orwell

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