Symbolic Manipulation Program
Encyclopedia
Symbolic Manipulation Program, usually called SMP, was a computer algebra system
designed by Chris A. Cole and Stephen Wolfram
at Caltech circa 1979 and initially developed in the Caltech physics department under Wolfram's leadership with contributions from Geoffrey C. Fox, Jeffrey M. Greif, Eric D. Mjolsness, Larry J. Romans, Timothy Shaw, and Anthony E. Terrano. It was first sold commercially in 1981 by the Computer Mathematics Corporation of Los Angeles
which later became part of Inference Corporation; Inference Corp. further developed the program and marketed it commercially from 1983 to 1988. SMP was essentially Version Zero of the more ambitious Mathematica
system.
SMP was influenced by the earlier computer algebra systems Macsyma
(of which Wolfram was a user) and Schoonschip
(whose code Wolfram studied).
Computer algebra system
A computer algebra system is a software program that facilitates symbolic mathematics. The core functionality of a CAS is manipulation of mathematical expressions in symbolic form.-Symbolic manipulations:...
designed by Chris A. Cole and Stephen Wolfram
Stephen Wolfram
Stephen Wolfram is a British scientist and the chief designer of the Mathematica software application and the Wolfram Alpha computational knowledge engine.- Biography :...
at Caltech circa 1979 and initially developed in the Caltech physics department under Wolfram's leadership with contributions from Geoffrey C. Fox, Jeffrey M. Greif, Eric D. Mjolsness, Larry J. Romans, Timothy Shaw, and Anthony E. Terrano. It was first sold commercially in 1981 by the Computer Mathematics Corporation of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
which later became part of Inference Corporation; Inference Corp. further developed the program and marketed it commercially from 1983 to 1988. SMP was essentially Version Zero of the more ambitious Mathematica
Mathematica
Mathematica is a computational software program used in scientific, engineering, and mathematical fields and other areas of technical computing...
system.
SMP was influenced by the earlier computer algebra systems Macsyma
Macsyma
Macsyma is a computer algebra system that was originally developed from 1968 to 1982 at MIT as part of Project MAC and later marketed commercially...
(of which Wolfram was a user) and Schoonschip
Schoonschip
Schoonschip was one of the first computer algebra systems, developed in 1963 by Martinus J. G. Veltman, for use in particle physics."Schoonschip" literally means "clean ship" in Dutch.FORM can be regarded, in a sense, as the successor to Schoonschip....
(whose code Wolfram studied).