Erable is a
computer algebra system
A computer algebra system (CAS) or symbolic algebra system (SAS) is any mathematical software with the ability to manipulate mathematical expressions in a way similar to the traditional manual computations of mathematicians and scientists. The de ...
(CAS) for a family of Hewlett-Packard graphing scientific calculators of the
HP 40,
48 and
HP 49/50 series.
History
Originally named ''ALGB'' in 1993, it was developed by the French mathematician for the
HP 48SX. Over time, the system integrated a lot of functionality from another math pack for the HP 48 series,
ALG48 by
Mika Heiskanen and
Claude-Nicolas Fiechter. At some point, ''ALGB'' was renamed into ''Erable'', a French play-on-words on another CAS named
Maple
''Acer'' is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the soapberry family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated si ...
. Compatible with the
HP 48S,
48SX,
48G,
48GX, and
48G+, Erable became one of the "must-have" software packages to be installed by advanced users of these calculators.
When
Hewlett-Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...
developed the
HP 49G in 1999, the Erable and ALG48 packages became an integral part of the calculator's firmware, now just named ''HP49 CAS''.
As HP CAS it also showed up in the
HP 40G,
,
,
48gII and
50g and was maintained by Parisse up to 2006.
Based on his experiences with Erable, Parisse started developing a new and more general CAS system named
Xcas /
Giac in 2000. It is written in
C++ rather than
System RPL. This system was integrated into the
HP Prime in 2013 under a dual-license scheme.
Versions
The last stable stand-alone version of Erable for the
HP 48 series is 3.024 (1998-08-06),
with source code as of 1998-07-14 available under the
GNU GPL.
The latest beta versions for these calculators are 3.117 (1998-10-17)
and 3.201 (1999-02-07).
Parts of the CAS system for the
HP 49/50 series (version 4) were released as open-source under the
LGPL
The GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) is a free-software license published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The license allows developers and companies to use and integrate a software component released under the LGPL into their own ...
(since some parts of the CAS, which are copyrighted by Hewlett-Packard, remain proprietary software) and were maintained by Parisse up to 2006-02-02 (for firmware 2.14),
and 2006-09-19 (for firmware 2.15 (2009-04-21)
and 2.16 (2012-04-26)).
See also
*
Comparison of computer algebra systems
References
External links
*
Free computer algebra systems
Free mathematics software
Mathematical software
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