BUG REPORT

[CuzImInside]

Hello everyone,

a few days ago I experienced a really annoying bug.

You will find a mathcad file attached, where my problem is described.

I will also attach a pdf file for those people who can't open the mathcad file.

MathCAD Version: Prime 5.0.0.0

I would be glad if anyone could solve my problem or if any staff could forward this report to the responsible department.

Thanks for helping!

Lukas

[Werner_E · Accepted solution]

Funny effect and I agree thats it a bug. But it won't help reporting it to PTC as they are not interested, they don't care about us Mathcad/Prime users.

In playing around with your sheet I noticed two things:

1) The bug only occurs if the function name of the derivative consists of more than one character

2) Omitting the "=0" also persuades Prime to return the correct solution:

The bug shows in Prime 4 and in Prime 5, but the bug is not present in Mathcad 15:

Good thing is that there are two easy solutions:

1) If you are lazy, not only omit stating which variable you want Prime to solve for but also omit the " = 0 "

or

2) Always state which variable Prime should solve for - its good habit to do so anyway.

[CuzImInside]

Thanks for your detailed answer!

I think I will accustom to always write the variable I want to solve for.

I just do not like such little unpredictable bugs, they could be really bad at an exam.

[ttokoro]

[skunks]

[LucMeekes]

What strikes me most is the fact that the symbolic processor returns 0.69314718055994530942 as an answer, instead of just:

ln(2)

Luc

[Werner_E]

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@LucMeekes wrote:

What strikes me most is the fact that the symbolic processor returns 0.69314718055994530942 as an answer, instead of just:

ln(2)

Luc

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Yes, thats disappointing. Guess Maple in your MC11 does a better job here.

In Mathcad or Prime we have to help MuPad a little bit so that it will come up with the exact result:

[VladimirN]

Please send your issue by using "Mathcad Support Center": 

http://www.ptc.com/support/mathcad_supportCenter.htm

https://support.ptc.com/support/mathcad_supportCenterEnterprise.htm

[CuzImInside]

No chance, they don't want to (look at the screenshot) ...

[LucMeekes]

That is very much in line with common experience on this forum.

Any decent software (developing and selling) company should be happy (and generally is) to learn from anyone if there is a bug in their software.

PTC is not interested in improving their product, and certainly does not want to learn from those users that don't  pay maintenance fees. I can only imagine that they are happy to take customer money for their product, but feel distraught whenever a comment on that software is raised (because it takes time=money to pay attention to it); more so when the comment comes from a non-paying customer.

Luc

[Werner_E]

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@LucMeekes wrote:

That is very much in line with common experience on this forum.

Any decent software (developing and selling) company should be happy (and generally is) to learn from anyone if there is a bug in their software.

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PTC sees a bug report as a feature request the customer of course has to pay for (not for implementing, for reporting) 😞

[Werner_E]

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@CuzImInside wrote:

No chance, they don't want to (look at the screenshot) ...

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Correct, thats PTC typical. The Case article

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article?n=CS225575

they point you to, refers to

http://support.ptc.com/support/mathcad_su_policy.htm

where the first sentence reads

"It is our goal to provide you with all the tools you need to make the most out of your investment in Mathcad."

That's an example of a very special kind of humour (or chutzpah).

Guess this only applies to the old, perpetual licenses which they don't sell any more.

With the new time limited rental licenses customers are under maintenance automatically, I guess, and so are entitled to report bugs. The effect at the end of course would be the very same - a non-bug-fixed piece of ... software.

So you may see it that way: PTC saves you the time to formulate and turn in the bug report. That way you have more  time  to make the most out of your investment...