Originally Posted by rebhana

I have previously shown how xmaxima, an open-source symbolic math program runs under Easy Debian's LXDE window manager. Maxima is not as powerful as Wolfram's Mathematica or Maple, but comes surprisingly close. If you often need higher math, you might be interested in having maxima as an app on your N900.

Now I have discovered that there is an alternative GUI for maxima, wxmaxima, which has the advantage that it also runs nicely with debbie and is much more convenient to use. It can be installed from lenny-backports by

Code:

apt-get -t lenny-backports install wxmaxima

Maxima commands are executed by Shift+Return, provided one has selected "Enter evaluates cells" in the configure menu and xbindkeys is running (the "Set Deb HW Keys" icon). If the configure menu is too much scrambled under debbie, you can also do it from LXDE.

Producing a file /usr/share/applications/hildon/wxmaxima.desktop with content

Code:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=wxMaxima
GenericName=wxMaxima
Exec=debbie "xbindkeys; wxmaxima"
Icon=maxima-icon
X-Osso-Type=application/x-executable
X-HildonDesk-ShowInToolbar=true
Terminal=true
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true

gives a pocket symbolic math calculator that can be easily launched. A nice maxima icon is obtained by copying (one line!)

Code:

cp /.debian/usr/share/pixmaps/maxima-icon.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/hildon/

Here are two screenshots. The first shows an indefinite integration, and an embedded 3d plot; the second the same 3d plot rendered with "openmath" option, which opens the plot in a separate window, where one can rotate it with stylus or finger!