Maple

Maple does not cost $2. Cheapes is a student license $100.

Maple 14 has already been launched and macupdate only has Maple 13.

I only commented before but now I'm reviewing. I've had the misfortune of using maple 12 due to some legacy files and I'm actually shocked. The interface simply doesn't work. There is no undo! And apparently matrices no longer obey A+B = B+A (I did check element by element). If I need help then clicking on the help menu works maybe 50% of the time, and when it does it takes at least 20 seconds to appear. This is the biggest load of **** I've used in a long time. You have two reasonable options: a) Use SAGE. (see my reviews) b) Use Mathematica if you don't mind the cost. It may be as ugly as sin but at least it works.

Maple 12 is even worse than the previous versions. Very slow on a Mac G5 2GB DRAM; basically unusable. Terrible interface and terrible documentation. Stay away from it if you can. Mathematica is better, but it also affected by the bloated software syndrome. Consider using the open-source SAGE package for serious work; it is getting better by the day.

I'm not sure about one star; Maple's works well enough for me for a while. It's interface is a bit crappy. It looks nice and clean on the surface, but just try to copy and paste stuff! Anyway, I prefer SAGE. It's a relative newcomer, but it's extremely good and free! It's development has been extraordinary. Amongst it's benefits are that it uses a web browser for the interface (and it even typesets better than Maple), it allows easy collaborative use, it comes as a nice compiled package that you just drag and drop (no installer) and it incorporates Python, so you can actually program properly in it. You can even use stereoscopic glasses to view 3D plots in 3D! http://www.sagemath.org/

Maple has fallen further and further behind Mathematica since Maple 6. Slow, buggy with few significant new features. Time to get off this train!

I come back here after an earlier post: now Intel-compatible, this version 10 really is a great step compared to my previous v.9. Ease of use is improved too even for the occasional user, and the extreme formal math strength (compared to e.g. Mathematica) is now indeed paired with really good interfaces (UI, instant and extensive help system, importing, exporting etc.) plus it flies on an intel ;-) last point: a very reactive and helpful dedicated newsgroup: comp.soft-sys.math.maple

Maple is now slow. Labels on tabs and panels have gone. It crashes constantly. Has anyone else had these problems? This is not isolated, as I uninstalled and tried an install on my macbook too.

Sadly, this new release is still not Intel-compiled... All the best for Maple however, and patiently waiting :-)