ChapterZero

Surprisingly, I didn’t have the thought to search online for a book on computer algebra until tonight. And since I’ve had that thought, I haven’t been able to locate one.

I have been reading the book “Symbolic Integration I: Transcendental Functions” for the past three days by Manuel Bronstein, and am finding it good going. The first chapter provides a fast paced, intensive review of the algebra definitions and theorems needed in the rest of the book, albeit without much explication. But if you’ve ever had exposure to rings or fields, that review should be sufficient to grasp the concepts necessary to proceed reading the rest of the book.

So far, I have only read the section on the generalized euclidean algorithm, as applied to polynomial rings over fields. Just reading this has motivated me even more to attempt to get some sort of system working so I can play around with polynomials, gcds, diophantine equations, and the like. Unfortunately, the parsing problem is still there. Oh, Manuel Bronstein also has a pdf tutorial on symbolic integration available online (cf. citeseer).

Spring Break is over today; back to school on Monday. More teachers’ dirty looks…