Anybody Try Mupad?

Mathcad uses MuPad as the symbolic engine.

It doesn't really sit on top of the symbolic toolbox. It IS the symbolic toolbox.

As Richard says, the Symbolic Toolbox is effectively MuPad. I've only used it a couple of times, and I can't say that I find it any "friendlier" than the normal Matlab interface when used with its toolbox interface (ie, as an App) ... just different, although I do like the "standard" math notation for the results.

You don't need to type mupad in to use it, though ... or, at least, not in my version ... you can simply use the sym commands, eg:

>> A=hilb(3)

A =

1.0000 0.5000 0.3333

0.5000 0.3333 0.2500

0.3333 0.2500 0.2000

>> sym(A)

ans =

[ 1, 1/2, 1/3]

[ 1/2, 1/3, 1/4]

[ 1/3, 1/4, 1/5]

>> phi=sym('(1+sqrt(5))/2');

>> simplify(phi)

ans =

5^(1/2)/2 + 1/2

>> eval(phi)

ans =

1.6180

>> phi2=(1+sqrt(5))/2

phi2 =

1.6180

>> sym(phi2)

ans =

910872158600853/562949953421312

There are, however, some MuPad features that will only run in the Notebook interface (eg, contfrac).

Overall, I still prefer the look and feel of a Mathcad worksheet, although I think the integration of the symbolic commands could be improved ... I've often wanted to construct a procedure that contains the symbolic commands as an integral part of its construction, rather than have them be only available through the separate symbolic evaluation operator; eg, I'd like to write:

f(x):=| sexpr<-asin(x) series,x,10

| fexpr<-sexpr confrac,10

| fexpr

or

f(x):=| sexpr<-series(asin(x). x,10)

| fexpr<-confrac(sexpr,10)

| fexpr

and then symbolically evaluate the function to allow its use by the numerical processor.

Stuart

PS. Mathcad's symbolic processor is a cut-down version of MuPad.