The Resources

This post is mostly concerned about the excellent resources that are available to us when it comes to Sagemaths. There is a decade-history behind this project and and even longer one behind the main creator of the system William Stein and I recommend that you have a look at his Blog.

The project is as much personal to him as his vision to provide people with a free and an open source option to the Big M's for Mathematics which are, namely :- Mathematica, Matlab, Maple.

Of course, to accomplish this goal would be impossible for a single person and I makes to happy to tell you that there are many brilliant ( and awesome !) collaborators from all around the world who have joined in and are truly carving out something beautiful for us.

There are Many wonderful blog posts out there which do a Great job of explaining "Why" this is necessary, so instead of just re-inventing the wheel and not doing a good job at it, I would really rather have you read these posts which truly reflect the spirit of Sagemaths. You should especially read his personal account of his experience with Computer Algebra Software (CAS), which you can find over here !!

As far as my own personal conviction and experience with Computer Aided Mathematics( CAM ) and CAS is concerned, I am a 100% for  Sage. For me the vision is big enough, it's big enough a personal challenge and the time would be well spent as it only helps the community as a whole to move forward. Sage Rock;P !!

Now, let's move on with the resources that we are to use during our Explorations !

Of course, we have to be perfectly at ease with SageMathsCloud apart from the base Sagemaths website and I hope that this initial getting-to-know period shouldn't take long. The base web-site is the one where we would be able to find all the necessary resources like the Manuals, the Binaries needed to install the software and of course the entire Source Code for Sagemaths.

Take my word for it, the Manuals are HUGE and well-laid out. But, to be frank, it's always tedious to go through manuals, especially if they explain a software system. But, no need to despair folks !!

We have freely available ebooks and Course Materials which we can use a guide. And with time, we will dwelve deeper into the Advanced Application and Usage of Sagemaths to explore and understand various aspects of Computational as well as Mathematical Domain.

First off, we really need to get comfortable using Sagemaths on the platform of our choice, be it the desktop version or the internet version which is SageMathsCloud. There are minute differences between the two which are mostly related to the various advantages that the Internet and the Machine offers us. For example, we don't really need to worry about the version of Sagemaths that we are using while we are on the SageMathsCloud and all our files are automatically backed up, not to mention that we can access our account from just about anywhere and from any modern device. The most vital thing that SageMathsCloud needs is a modern Internet Browser. So, you can operate from within your own cosy and personal web environment.

But if the internet connection is wrecked or slow for some reason then SageMathsCloud might not always be the best option to work with. This is again true if you are quite sure of the machine( computer ) that you are using and this in fact would be a better option if you are quite advanced in your knowledge of the *nix systems, most importantly Linux. The Source Code would best be analyzed and modified in this setting. To sum it up, if you are comfortable with the Shell and delight at figuring things out by getting your hands dirty and are fluent in other computer languages as well then, perhaps this is the option that you should really go in with.

Personally, I am gonna start off with the SageMathsCloud and then when I am proficient with the elementary details of how to compute various things and understand a little better how the system is really organized, I will eventually use Sagemaths on my Ubuntu-based machine in harmony with SageMathsCloud, though not as a replacement to it. I really believe  that being on the Internet has it's benefits like being able to do Real Time Collaborations, look things up in an instant and thus getting over the road-blocks pretty quickly and of course, that way I won't have to worry about losing my data to so inexplicable error or virus on my computer.

Now, there are a bunch of books and videos that I find to be extremely helpful when it comes to using Sage as a tool for doing Mathematics which lie comfortably between absolutely-don't-know-anything to oh-I-can-do-that !

A course in Linear Algebra using Sagemaths

Differential Calculus and Sagemaths

Introductory Differential Equations

Hey, I found this book which pretty much covers all the basic Mathematics and is full of good examples, not to mention that it is free to download and use as per the CC license.  So, make sure you head over to Stitz Zeager - ALGEBRA, GEOMETRY, CALCULUS.

Or if you want to explore some advanced topics and courses then have a look at the following list over at sage's Github page.

Courses taught via Sagemaths

The Math books, as I mentioned in the last post as well as pretty basic in their content and I believe that the best way forward would be to spend some time getting the basics right. You know, there is no point really thinking about N-Dimensional space or some such when we are barely acquainted with the 2-D or even 1-D space and understand the underlying approach and techniques that we use for analysis. Though, moving towards this Goal, would be have an excellent motivation value.

By basics, I mean things along the line of,

> Adding/dividing both sides
> Naming meaningful variables and organizing them in a coherent way
> Being able to plot basic graphs and their manipulation
> How to express a formula in a computer language
> Solving equations

And much more.

Oh, yeah, almost forgot these two very important resources about the Sagemath's official documentation.

Sagemaths Help Page

Comprehensive Tutorials

So, the next post onwards we are gonna move in this direction and the books that you do feel comfortable with would do just fine. Actually even if you wish to use a different book on the same topic, I don't think that it would raise any serious difficulty for our cause as the techniques to solve these are pretty much the same. Though a possible stumbling block might be that you come across a concept that we are yet to explore over here then you need to adapt a Hacker Mindset;)

Hacking is a Mindset not a Skillset 

Five Principles of Hacking

Understanding Hacker Mindset

Hacking Mindset

Wondering how it is related to us. Well, by now you should know better, we are hacking Mathematics. That's the goal ! You know, be a rebel, that lone wolf in the wilderness who refuses to give up and get things done against all odds. Yay, that's the spirit;)

Courage is One part Brave, Three parts Fool !!

And a few Ted talks to get you moving.

Ted Talk on Hacking - Lital Marom

Actually, while you are at it. Do take a look at these ones too;P

I just love Ted Talks, they always inspire me to improve every single day and we always need good motivation, so making that a part of your life might not really be such a bad idea)

You should really unleash your creativity; though a Zen patience is only going to help;)

Things are going to be definitely frustrating, unimaginable distractions would turn up every now and then but Have Faith, Be a Good Traveller and Love the Journey and Keep Your Eyes on the Goal !!

Gregory Bard - You will understand why the page looks like that way it is, the reason is just right there in the title. It does make one feel nostalgic, no ?

The goal is to be creative, not only to study mathematics but to create it as well !!

Think about it for a minute, how many brilliant "Geniuses" have been there, how many "good-at-maths" people we have met in our lives and how many still do We remember. How many amongst these people with "special" abilities leave a mark on History ?

I believe that it's about creating and exploring, merely learning something is a waste of time and as a species which is really only limited by time, we must spend it carefully. Knowledge is meant to be expanded and if we don't really aim to Add to it, then the entire endeavour isn't really worth it !!