Math::Symbolic 0.508

Math::Symbolic is a Perl module for symbolic calculations.

SYNOPSIS

use Math::Symbolic;

my $tree = Math::Symbolic->parse_from_string(1/2 * m * v^2);
# Now do symbolic calculations with $tree.
# ... like deriving it...

my ($sub) = Math::Symbolic::Compiler->compile_to_sub($tree);

my $kinetic_energy = $sub->($mass, $velocity);

Math::Symbolic is intended to offer symbolic calculation capabilities to the Perl programmer without using external (and commercial) libraries and/or applications.

Unless, however, some interested and knowledgable developers turn up to participate in the development, the library will be severely limited by my experience in the area. Symbolic calculations are an active field of research in CS.

There are several ways to construct Math::Symbolic trees. There are no actual Math::Symbolic objects, but rather trees of objects of subclasses of Math::Symbolic. The most general but unfortunately also the least intuitive way of constructing trees is to use the constructors of the Math::Symbolic::Operator, Math::Symbolic::Variable, and Math::Symbolic::Constant classes to create (nested) objects of the corresponding types.

Furthermore, you may use the overloaded interface to apply the standard Perl operators (and functions, see "OVERLOADED OPERATORS") to existing Math::Symbolic trees and standard Perl expressions.

Possibly the most convenient way of constructing Math::Symbolic trees is using the builtin parser to generate trees from expressions such as 2 * x^5. You may use the Math::Symbolic->parse_from_string() class method for this.
Of course, you may combine the overloaded interface with the parser to generate trees with Perl code such as "$term * 5 * sin(omega*t+phi)" which will create a tree of the existing tree $term times 5 times the sine of the vars omega times t plus phi.

There are several modules in the distribution that contain subroutines related to calculus. These are not loaded by Math::Symbolic by default. Furthermore, there are several extensions to Math::Symbolic availlable from CPAN as separate distributions. Please refer to "SEE ALSO" for an incomplete list of these.

For example, Math::Symbolic::MiscCalculus come with Math::Symbolic and contains routines to compute Taylor Polynomials and the associated errors.
Routines related to vector calculus such as grad, div, rot, and Jacobi- and Hesse matrices are availlable through the Math::Symbolic::VectorCalculus module. This module is also able to compute Taylor Polynomials of functions of two variables, directional derivatives, total differentials, and Wronskian Determinants.

Some basic support for linear algebra can be found in Math::Symbolic::MiscAlgebra. This includes a routine to compute the determinant of a matrix of Math::Symbolic trees.