Maplesoft, which markets the Maple mathematical application aimed at engineering professionals, students, and researchers, has put some muscle into improving usability. Among the highlights of the latest release, Maple 16, are features that make it easier to explore math, collaborate, and share equations.
Daniel Skoog, product manager at Maplesoft, told us the idea behind "clickable math," a concept his company launched in earlier Maple versions, is to make math as easy to use as possible. Building on ground established in earlier versions, Maple 16 features a "drag-to-solve" capability that eliminates the need to navigate context-sensitive menus or input parameters. Instead, users can simply drag around individual terms to solve a problem.
Maple 16 has expanded the Clickable Math collection, Maplesoft's array of tools for making it easier and more intuitive to explore mathematics. (Source: Maplesoft)
"Previously, with Clickable Math, users had to use context-sensitive menus, which some found overwhelming," Skoog said. "With drag-to-solve, users can directly take control of the calculation and solve equations by dragging terms around. It deepens their understanding of the problem and lets them quickly see what they can do with the expression they enter."
Beyond the drag-to-solve capabilities, Maple 16 -- which executives say has nearly 4,500 additions and enhancements -- serves up an array of features for improving usability. Among them are palettes, interactive assistants, tutors, and Smart Popups for instantly showing mathematical identities, plots, and factorizations.
Visualization was another key focus of the upgrade -- an important area of improvement, Skoog said, for users who want to share their results. With previous Maple versions, users had to work harder to give plots and charts a professional look. With this release, users don't need to rework charts to get them presentation-ready.
"Typically, users would get their results and spend another day to get them into a presentable form," he said. "That's not time well spent. Once they have the results, we want them to be able to do the visualizations and have it good and ready for presentation right off the bat."
Another capability Maplesoft officials highlighted with the new release is the increasingly popular Maple Cloud, which is essentially an online platform where Maple users can share and view content from other users. Like a Dropbox for sharing mathematical formulas and documents, the Maple Cloud has been enhanced with features like bookmarks and popular tabs -- all to help users search for new material and to foster reuse of commonly used expressions.
Although I *can" visualize math in my head, unfortunately it's more like I *had to* back in the day when most of it was taught with numerals and story problems. I had to memorize everything, which, having a visual memory, was doable but took a lot of discipline for an elementary school kid. It got better when the first wave of "new math" came in, mostly because of set theory. That's highly visualizable. Then in college stat class i learned to do long division in my head because calculators then still cost hundreds of dollars (in today's dollars). This new technology sounds ideal for many kids, whether they visualize or not.
Math is not my forte, and unlike Ann, I definitely can't visualize it in my head so tools like this would definitely help. Although, even with all the interface improvements and graphical capabilities, equations are still equations and you have to understand the basic concepts in order to really put a tool like this to the test. I guess that counts me out!
Checking the term "clickable math," I see that Maplesoft has trademarked it, which is probably a good move. I have a feeling we'll be hearing more of this term, or maybe a similar term from competitors. The product may represent a technical advancement, but I think there's a definite marketing success here, too.
I wish this type of visual interaction had been available when I was learning math way back when. Unlike ChasChas, I do think visually when it comes to math--I remember the pie diagrams in first grade to this day but the numerals on the board often gave me problems.
"These are numbers, not words - there are no hidden meaning - what you see is how it is - your looking too deep - etc." Said my math professors.
I can do math, but I cannot visualize with it. I resort back to the vivid images in my mind and use math when I need to know how much, how many, how big, etc.
So math was not a "snap" for me - I wonder if it could be a "click".
@Chuck: Clickable math is definitely a Maplesoft term, but I agree with everyone's comments that drag and drop, object-oriented, and more consumer-like interfaces make the high-level math equations more accessible for students. Don't forget, young people are very used to using their phones and apps in a highly intuitive way. They're not going to latch on to any old-school, command-line driven tool even if it feels comfortable to veteran engineers. Maplesoft, as all tool vendors, have to evolve with the times and give the younger generation tools that are as interactive and accessible as the ones they use in their personal lives.
Drag to solve or "interactive" math I like the sound of it. Maplesoft made be on to something with this method of manipulating equations with interaction. Might be a good tool for STEM professionals trying to peak student interest in mathematicals.
The term I like is "drag to solve"--that sounds like drag and drop, and it definitely sounds like an object-oriented interface, a growing trend in user interfaces for various types of app software.
I like the term "clickable math." Seems like a term that could catch on elsewhere in the modeling/software world. Is this a Maplesoft-ism or this this a broadly-used term, Beth?
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
16 
