MATHLAB: a program for on-line machine assistance in symbolic computations

Abstract

A mathematical scientist experiments. Today, his test tube and his breadboard are blackboard and paper. He may, it is true, have available a computer, but its role is numerical and its results are delivered not today or tomorrow but the day after the final programming bug is corrected. The computer is not present during the most creative phases of the scientist's labor. The purpose of MATHLAB is to provide the scientist with computational aid of a much more intimate and liberating nature.