Erable is a
computer algebra system
A computer algebra system (CAS) or symbolic algebra system (SAS) is any mathematical software with the ability to manipulate mathematical expressions in a way similar to the traditional manual computations of mathematicians and scientists. The d ...
(CAS) for a family of Hewlett-Packard graphing scientific calculators of the
HP 40,
48 and
HP 49/50 series.
History
Originally named ''ALGB'' in 1993, it was developed by the French mathematician for the
HP 48SX. Over time, the system integrated a lot of functionality from another math pack for the HP 48 series,
ALG48 by
Mika Heiskanen and
Claude-Nicolas Fiechter. At some point, ''ALGB'' was renamed into ''Erable'', a French play-on-words on another CAS named
Maple
''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...
. Compatible with the
HP 48S,
48SX,
48G,
48G+,
48GX, Erable became one of the "must-have" software packages to be installed by advanced users of these calculators.
When
Hewlett-Packard developed the
HP 49G in 1999, the Erable and ALG48 packages became an integral part of the calculator's firmware, now just named ''HP49 CAS''.
As HP CAS it also showed up in the
HP 40G
HP 39/40 series are graphing calculators from Hewlett-Packard, the successors of HP 38G. The series consists of six calculators, which all have algebraic entry modes, and can perform numeric analysis together with varying degrees of symbolic ...
,
40gs,
49g+,
48gII and
50g and was maintained by Parisse up to 2006.
Based on his experiences with Erable, Parisse started developing a new and more general CAS system named
Xcas /
Giac in 2000. It is written in
C++
C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...
rather than
System RPL. This system was integrated into the
HP Prime
The HP Prime Graphing Calculator is a graphing calculator introduced by Hewlett-Packard in 2013 and currently manufactured by HP Inc. It was designed with features resembling those of smartphones, such as a full-color touchscreen display and t ...
in 2013 under a dual-license scheme.
Versions
The last stable stand-alone version of Erable for the
HP 48 series
The HP 48 is a series of graphing calculators designed and produced by Hewlett-Packard from 1990 until 2003. The series includes the HP 48S, HP 48SX, HP 48G, HP 48GX, and HP 48G+, the G models being expanded and i ...
is 3.024 (1998-08-06),
with source code as of 1998-07-14 available under the
GNU GPL.
The latest beta versions for these calculators are 3.117 (1998-10-17)
and 3.201 (1999-02-07).
Parts of the CAS system for the
HP 49/50 series (version 4) were released as open-source under the
LGPL (since some parts of the CAS, which are copyrighted by Hewlett-Packard, remain proprietary software) and were maintained by Parisse up to 2006-02-02 (for firmware 2.14),
and 2006-09-19 (for firmware 2.15 (2009-04-21)
and 2.16 (2012-04-26)).
See also
*
Comparison of computer algebra systems
References
External links
*
Free computer algebra systems
Free mathematics software
Mathematical software
{{Science-software-stub