MATLAB How do I contribute to develop an open source alternative to Mathematica/Matlab?

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Mathematica, Maple, and Matlab are praised for their powerful algorithms that enhance computational speed, but they are proprietary and closed source. Alternatives like wxMaxima and Sage Math are available, but entering their developer communities can be challenging due to the technical jargon. A user with a background in C/C++ and experience in Linux and Mac is looking to transition from a GUI-focused approach to contributing to open source software. They express interest in learning shell scripting and seek guidance on additional languages or skills needed for development. The discussion highlights that understanding the coding requirements within these communities is essential, particularly for algorithm development. Resources like SourceForge, Octave, and NumPy are mentioned as valuable for those interested in contributing to open source projects. The user is curious about the timeline for grasping these programs and creating their own applications or plugins.
elduderino
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Mathematica/Maple/Matlab are awesome and they use algorithms which make computations faster, but they are proprietary and closed source. wxMaxima and Sage Math exist, and I need to enter this developer community. But its mostly composed of uber-jargon that I'm not yet easy with. I haven't contributed to any open source software stuff yet. I want to dive in.

I know C/C++ only right now. What do I need to learn? I work in Linux and Mac, but I've mostly been a GUI person. I don't type anything more than cp, rmdir/mkdir, cat, etc. on the bash prompt. I think I should learn shell scripting but I'm not sure how useful it would be for my goal. What other languages/skill would be required?

Also, what component of these developer communities require coding, or is developing algorithms to do computations the hard part?

How long should it take for me to start understanding their programs, and then start creating my own plug-ins/apps for them (if I use the right term).
 
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Well, I can't answer your questions in any good detail, but this website might help you out.

http://sourceforge.net/

Thanks
Matt
 
I am pretty sure Maxima is written in Lisp. I am not sure exactly how one gets involved in programming it.
 
Dr Transport said:
http://octave.sourceforge.net/ to support or help develop for Octave (a Matlab clone).

NumPy is a similar open source project that I have heard good things about. It is modeled after MATLAB but uses Python as its underlying language.

If there were a Mac OS X native GUI for either Octave or NumPy, I for one would think that would be very neat.
 

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