Plotting and printing see improvements along with physics and formal power.
Thirty Years of Commitment to Math
When Keith Geddes and Gaston Gonnet built their computer algebra system back in 1980, it was called Maple and designed to help students learn mathematics. Fourth-year students at the University of Waterloo were the first to test the software in a classroom setting as a learning tool. Eventually, the use of the software spread while development continued. Today, Maplesoft the company has more than 8,000 customers in 90 countries at universities, research labs and private companies.
Maplesoft’s mission is still focused on solving complex math equations faster and more efficiently while creating tools for teaching and learning math for the upcoming generations of engineers, researchers and scientists. The newest version of its flagship math software, Maple 2022, was recently released with new features and quality of life improvements.
Bringing Together the Math and the Presentation
Print Layout mode is new for 2022 and gives the ability to look at the presentation of your work while you’re doing the work. The user can still treat Maple like an engineering scratch pad, but there are many more options for the presentation of the work and a user can toggle in and out of Print Layout mode while building the document. The equations, calculations, images and text are all editable to show the sequence of events from evidence to calculation to results. A personal issue with simulation programs is the overabundance of data and material that comes when building a report. This is a nice change that gives the user control over what will be seen by the eventual audience versus what is being built in the worksheet. The math and calculations are still present, but the user has the option to either show the nuts and bolts of the underlying math or just show the results as an output.
PlotBuilder is beefed up with the 2022 version of the software. The big changes are the ability to plot multiple expressions and the initial plotting method. Using the PlotBuilder command lets users plot multiple expressions using the same variable, but that’s just the start of what can be done. The context panel provides the ability to work with any of the expressions separately, showing each plot following the sequence in the PlotBuilder command and color coding the plots. Each plot can be manipulated to be shown using different coordinate systems or graphic changes, such as thickness or line type. Using the Global Options command gives the same control but applies changes to every expression. The general options that we’re used to relating to scale, x- and y-axis limits, gridlines and labeling are also present and available on a local or global basis. Animation of plots also follows these multiple expression trends with the same local versus global controls.
The PlotBuilder also creates an initial plot when given single or multiple expressions. This is a big upgrade from previous versions in which the user needed to choose the method before being able to visualize the results. Now, the software builds the plot, usually as a straight 2D Plot, and then gives the options to switch to 2D polar, conformal, animated or complex views. 3D complex plots and space curves are also options. This is a nice change that can quickly give the user a visual feel for the data and should be able to make it clear if any glaring errors are present in the plotting commands. The previous method of plotting, in which an equation is entered and the plot built for one equation, is still present as well. Units also get an update in this revision as the Useunits command can rescale plots to show different unit systems and throw up an error if incompatible units are specified.
Formal Power, Quantum Chemistry, Physics and Advanced Math
The 2022 version of the software has numerous improvements with regard to math, just as we’d expect. Several of the core mathematical routines received changes, with integration being a main benefactor. Term-by-term integration and elliptic integration both have changes made that address specific errors that occurred with specific variable cases. Differential equations had their solvers updated to allow for more partial differential equations to be solved, especially in the Pdsolve and FindODE commands. Additional tweaks or improvements were made in the simplification, mathematical logic, min max and simplification areas of the software.
The convert/FormalPowerSeries function was totally rewritten for Maple 2022. Several cases that would previously fail or provide no result are now able to be solved as closed-form solutions. M-fold hypergeometric sequences, Laurent and Puiseux series problems, and recurrence relations also had updates. Quantum chemistry got a boost in Maple 2022 for users who have the Maple Quantum Chemistry Toolbox from RDMChem add-on. Other new features were added related to density functional theory, ghost atoms, exciton populations and skeletal structures.
Physics has been one of Maple’s areas of interest since launching the Maple Physics: Research and Development site. This site lets researchers and academics download a special physics-focused version of the software and use it to perform experiments and give feedback. The 2022 version of the product contains changes requested by or developed through this physics community. Physics computations based in algebra are faster almost across the board using this new updated package, and several improvements were made in the areas of particle physics, functional differentiation in general relativity and integral vector calculus. This feedback loop is fascinating to me because the company is working to update a portion of its software based on the input of its users while keeping up to date with the general Maple changes.
What Does It All Mean?
The engineers and programmers at Maple remain committed to helping move math forward. That might mean solving complex equations faster, managing multiple solutions and simulations, or presenting the data in a format that’s more likely to get the results understood. There’s a huge demonstration in the software, and the 2022 release notes that the company isn’t just worried about doing math more quickly and efficiently but also pushing the idea that math is beneficial to the world and mathematics knowledge is valuable at all levels of education and experience.
Maple never loses sight of its users and how the software is being used. Even the tabs in the Explore the New Features section of the Maple 2022 page take you to pdf files that are pulled straight from the help documentation in the software. After downloading a trial copy of the software and using trial and error and the help pages, I was able to build math models, insert text and images, and create a nicely formatted document using Layout Mode.
There’s a mix of new features and commands and changes that were made to address issues or bugs. The List of New Commands and Packages and List of Updated Commands in the software are both huge, showing that the company has a commitment to its users and customer base while still trying to move forward in several fields of mathematics. Some of the changes discussed are incredibly intricate special cases, showing that Maple understands the current limitations of its software and is working to address issues or push past current capabilities.
One of the highlights for me is Maplesoft’s Solutions Page, where engineers can go to look for help in a specific industry of application. Machine design and automation, aerospace and vehicles, power generation, and robotics each have separate sections showing what the software can do for the industry. Whitepapers and case studies are also present to show how Maple has helped companies use mathematics faster and better. Events in the past few years have shown that simply performing the experiments might not be sufficient to convince people in an organization to take action. The new tools that Maple 2022 is offering, especially in the realms of presentation and print layout, might help give engineers and scientists better ammunition to affect meaningful changes.
