Math Forum Advanced Summer Institute
Informal Software Reviews

Through the week of the 1998 Advanced Summer Institute, participants were exposed to a variety of software applications. We asked for feedback on the software they used during the week. This page is a summary of the comments made about the software applications. The feedback are mostly responses to the following questions:

Please tell us how you found the software you used this week.

html/web software?

math software?

other?

BBedit - Bare Bones Software, Inc.URL: http://web.barebones.com/products/bbedit/bbedit.html
HTML editor

Comments:

• Great. I use an older (free) version of BBEdit so it was nice to see all the features of the full version.

• I had never used BBEdit before, nor had I spent much time doing actual html coding, but I had little difficulty in adapting or using it. I feel pretty confident with it right now.

• Even though I'm a Windows person I found all the programs terrific. BBedit, Netscape, ...

• I like BBEdit. I learned more features this week. Thank you.

• BBedit very useful

• BBedit was very powerful! I used it extensively.

• BBEdit is a super web editor very easy to use. I think I will stick with my current editors however.

• BBEdit was great, ...

• I have looked at the Forum's suggested PC versions of BBEdit (or HTML editing programs) and will be trying to get set up on one of those when I get back.

The Geometer's Sketchpad & JavaSketchpad - Key Curriculum Press
URL: http://www.keypress.com/product_info/sketchpad3.html
Dynamic Geometry Construction Tool

Comments:

• GSP is WOW!

• I found the Java Sketchpad to be my favorite tool for my interest this week.(Along with Geometer's SP.)

• I used GSP ...

• Java Sketchpad hit right on what I am trying to develop as an activity.

• I liked the demo on Java Sketchpad. ... I'll definitely use it in the future and also teach it to students.

• JSP very useful

• JavaSP is Dynamite!

• I think I will use javagsp, ..

• think that the use of GSP will be a great enhancement to teaching in my school. We don't have it yet, but will by August.

Comments:

• Graphing calculator - good, but probably wouldn't use it too much.

• I used GSP, the graphing calculator, ...

• I loved the stuff from Graphing Cal/NuCalc and can't wait to try it at home.

• the graphing calculator utility and equation transfer to gif is very useful

Comments:

• I use ClarisWorks but as long as MacLink was available it wasn't a problem.

• The version of ClarisWorks is better than ours at school and it did everything I needed.

Comments:

• Dreamweaver is great! I am sure as more behaviors are possible, the program will enable non programmers like me to provide interesting web environments.

• I think I will use javagsp, forms and dreamweaver in the upcoming school year.

Comments:

• MathView and Maple are familiar to me but it was nice to see Mathematica and Mathcad as well.

• Maple and that stuff is over my head.

• 1st tier: javagsp, mathview, your entire site and its search capability.

• 2nd tier: POW software (for use on our computational science education site), need to learn TACO or more about it...allforms...may want to mooch a version of this for our server... ...I want to learn GSP better ...

• I did not get as much from the presentations on Mathview, Maple, and Mathematica as others may have. The reason for this is simply that I will have no real use for these software packages any time in the foreseeable future. However, I feel that the presentations were useful for many.

• I think that TappedIn could have some very good uses as time goes on.

• For me, TappedIn, although cool, doesn't excite me or offer any practical uses at the moment.

• I agree with Rob that at this point the TappedIn session was not as productive as other aspects of the Institute. I find it difficult to keep up with so many people involved and that was a comment that Dave made - he agreed that it would be more productive with fewer people and perhaps a focused topic.

• Even though I'm a Windows person I found all the programs terrific. BBedit, Netscape, cip2gif, Eudora, were all great. I also used Graphics Converter briefly with no problem.

Mathematica Home page - URL: http://www.wolfram.com/mathematica

Maple Home page - URL: http://www.maplesoft.com/maplevr5.html

Math View Homepage - URL: http://www.maplesoft.com/mathview.html

MathCAD - URL: http://www.mathcad.com/mathcad/

TAPPED IN - URL: http://www.tappedin.org/