From rjpetti@alum.mit.edu Wed Aug 25 11:03:03 CDT 1999 Article: 20254 of sci.math.symbolic Path: news.math.niu.edu!husk.cso.niu.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.erols.net!outgoing.news.rcn.net.MISMATCH!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!not-for-mail From: "Richard Petti" Newsgroups: sci.math.symbolic Subject: Macsyma Inc. sold, I resign Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 16:04:43 -0400 Lines: 43 Message-ID: <7puv16$9e4$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> X-Trace: fLNALGWXWig0+0cDv+BZAwbBPAW2ZGI82CAQYU2Pr6o= X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 24 Aug 1999 20:24:06 GMT X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3110.3 X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3110.1 Xref: news.math.niu.edu sci.math.symbolic:20254 This summer I arranged the sale of Macsyma Inc. to a company with interests in government research. About two weeks ago, for the second time in a dozen years, I relinquished control of Macsyma. o I led the turn around of Macsyma inside Symbolics in 1986-87. We doubled sales, and achieved 70% market share. However, Symbolics used Macsyma as a cash cow, so the turnaround lost momentum and I left. By 1992 Macsyma's market share fell to 1%. o In 1992 I founded Macsyma Inc. by buying Macsyma from Symbolics. In Michael Wester's definitive 1999 test of math software (542 problems, 7 systems), our quantified scores (he does not use numbers) show Macsyma is tied for the lead, 0.5% ahead of Maple and about 15% ahead of Mathematica. (This scoring uses the fact that Wester gives Macsyma no credit for five problems which Macsyma can do; if you use Wester's results, Maple is about 1.2% ahead of Macsyma.) Macsyma's mathematics effort was led by Jeff Golden (departed, see newsgroup message of August 14) and Bill Gosper (departed the same week as Jeff and I), with occasional important work from consultant Bill Dubuque. I want to call attention to the extraordinary accomplishments of Jeff and Bill G. (and Bill D.) who, with some help from other people, produced a product whose mathematics matches or beats the best produced by much larger staffs elsewhere. Bravo! I ask any of you with whom I have communicated in the past few years to send me a message with your email and address, because I do not have all the contact information I had at Macsyma Inc. Richard Petti 146 Gray Street Arlington, MA 02476 Tel: 781-648-7856 email: rjpetti@alum.mit.edu