Editing Maxima (software) (section)

==Symbolic calculations==

Like most computer algebra systems, Maxima supports a variety of ways of reorganizing symbolic algebraic expressions, such as [[polynomial factorization]], [[polynomial greatest common divisor]] calculation, expansion, separation into real and imaginary parts, and transformation of trigonometric functions to exponential and vice versa. It has a variety of techniques for simplifying algebraic expressions involving trigonometric functions, roots, and exponential functions. It can calculate symbolic [[antiderivative]]s ("indefinite integrals"), [[definite integral]]s, and [[limit (mathematics)|limits]]. It can derive closed-form [[series expansion]]s as well as terms of [[Taylor series|Taylor-Maclaurin]]-[[Laurent series|Laurent]] series. It can perform matrix manipulations with symbolic entries.

Maxima is a general-purpose system, and special-case calculations such as [[Integer factorization|factorization of large numbers]], manipulation of extremely large [[polynomial]]s, etc. are sometimes better done in specialized systems.

===Numeric calculations===
Maxima specializes in [[symbolic computation|symbolic operations]], but it also offers numerical capabilities<ref name="MaximaSpringer">{{cite book |last1=Barnes |first1=David J. |last2=Chu |first2=Dominique |name-list-style=amp |title=Introduction to Modeling for Biosciences |chapter=Chapter 5 |publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-84996-325-1}}</ref> such as [[arbitrary-precision arithmetic|arbitrary-precision]] [[integer]], [[rational number]], and [[Floating-point arithmetic|floating-point numbers]], limited only by space and time constraints.

===Programming===
Maxima includes a complete programming language with [[ALGOL]]-like syntax but [[Lisp (programming language)|Lisp]]-like [[Semantics (computer science)|semantics]]. It is written in [[Common Lisp]] and can be accessed programmatically and extended, as the underlying Lisp can be called from Maxima. It uses [[gnuplot]] for drawing.

For calculations using floating point and arrays heavily, Maxima has translators from the Maxima language to other programming languages (notably [[Fortran]]), which may execute more efficiently.