[plt-scheme] Science Collection

There are always people trying to implement a scientific computation packege in 
Scheme. But my opinion is that MrMathematica (by me at http://www.websamba.com/mrmathematica)
is a better choice. The reasons are

1 MrMathematica is scheme-ish: Every expression is still S-exp; List is still the 
  basic compond data structure;
2 Although currently version of MrMathematica targets only MzScheme, its design is 
  portable to any Scheme implementation that can be extended using C. Put in another 
  way, it avoids the portable ploblem which caused a discussion here yesterday; 
3 MrMathematica is more comprehensive and should run faster;
4 The numbers in Scheme is somewhat faulty. For example, R5RS requires (integer? 1.0) 
  to return #t but it may return #f since any inaccuracy may affect the result. 
  MzScheme's inf.0 and nan.0 are also strange: infinity answers #t for both even? 
  and odd? but why it is an integer? And MzScheme doen't support arbitrary precision 
  real number ... Design a computation packege based on such a number system will be 
  painful. 

I am now writing a paper about the MrMathematica (plan to submit to Scheme WorkShop 2005). 
If anyone is willing to give me any advice about the paper, please Email me so I can send 
the draft. 


======== 2004-10-04 21:46:29 Williams, M. Douglas ========

I am currently developing a numerical computing package in PLT Scheme to support my knowledge-based simulation work.  I am almost ready to release it and have a few questions of the PLT Scheme community at large.
 
2.  The entire science collection is rather large ?several dozen modules in eight primary areas: Mathematical Constants and Functions, Special Functions (Error Functions, Gamma Functions, Psi Functions, and Zeta Functions), Random Number Generation (extensions to SRFI 27: Sources of Random Bits), Random Number Distributions (including density functions and plotting), Statistics, Histograms (continuous (1D and 2D) and discrete, including plotting), Chebyshev Approximations, and PLoT Scheme Extensions (histogram data plotting, discrete function and data plotting).  Currently, it is packaged (and documented) as a single collection with sub-collections for the special functions and random number distributions.  Would it be better to distribute the functionality as individual collections (presumably eight matching the functional areas above)?
 
Thanks in advance for any advice.

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Zhu Chongkai
mathematica at citiz.net
2004-10-06