Notices

SymPy is a a Computer Algebra System (CAS) written in pure Python.

See the SymPy sites :
SymPy for smartphones & tablets
SymPy.org
SymPy Wiki
SymPy documentation

Versions of SymPy :
- for Maemo 4 Diablo and Maemo 5 Fremantle : v0.7.3 (13/07/2013) is available in their repositories, this is the latest version compatible with Python 2.5;
- for MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan : v0.7.5 (22/02/2014).
- for Sailfish/Mer : v0.7.6.1 (03/09/2015).

See post #3 for SymPy release history on Maemo / MeeGo.

Screenshots of SymPy 0.7.x

Nokia N900 showing some calculus, after tapping the SymPy icon or typing "isympy" in X Terminal :



Nokia N9 running SymPy using the IPython 0.13.1 Notebook interface on Firefox v15. "init_printing()" is used to show nice outputs with LaTeX :


Nexus 4 running SymPy with IPython 2.1.0 Notebook interface on Webcat web browser :



With SymPy there were 2 plotting options (1st and 3rd below), but since SymPy 0.7.2 there are 3 options to make plots :
1) "Plot()" using PyGlet (only on Maemo 5), see post #11 for some usage examples on Nokia N900;
2) new plotting module (from v0.7.2) using NumPy & MatPlotLib (on Maemo 5, MeeGo Harmattan and Sailfish), see post #30 for some usage examples on Nokia N9 & N900;
3) mpmath plotting functions using MatPlotLib (on Maemo 5, MeeGo Harmattan and Sailfish), see post #32 for some usage examples on Nokia N9 & N900.
Comparing the 3 options :
- 'Plot()'/PyGlet only works on Maemo 5, while plotting module and mpmath plotting work on Maemo 5, MeeGo Harmattan and Sailfish;
- 'Plot()' labels on axes and axes tick marks don't work on Maemo 5, while in plotting module they are ok;
- 'Plot()' can use cylindrical or spherical coordinate systems to make 3D parametric surfaces, while plotting 'plot3d' and mpmath plotting can't;
- 3D parametric curve of plotting module doesn't work on Maemo 5 (MatPlotLib 1.0.0 is too old);
- mpmath plotting has no 2D parametric plots and no options to specify axis names, title name, plot color, etc;
- mpmath plotting has surfaces plots with some faulty colors on Maemo 5 & MeeGo Harmattan & Sailfish;
- 3D plots with 'Plot()' are faster than with plotting module or mpmath plotting.

Nokia N9 plot made by the new plotting module of SymPy 0.7.2 :

Nokia N900 screenshot with 3D plot made by 'Plot()', it is interactive, being controlled by keyboard or stylus :


Nokia N9 showing SymPy 0.7.2 new plotting features in IPython 0.13.1 Notebook interface on Firefox v15. With "%pylab inline", MatPloLib 1.2.0 & NumPy 1.7.0 are loaded in interactive mode and the plots are embedded.


See more plot examples in post #11 about "Plot()", post #30 about new plotting module and post #32 about mpmath plotting.


To install SymPy 0.7.5 on Sailfish, install Warehouse (OpenRepos.net client) for Sailfish OS, see the Jolla Tides guide with screenshots. Then open Warehouse, search for "SymPy", enable the repository, then install it.

It is strongly suggested to also install IPython for Sailfish, so the interactive use becomes a lot easier.

On Sailfish, IPython has 2 interfaces, IPython terminal and IPython Notebook. The MeeGo Harmattan examples below apply, but there is no icon for IPython on Sailfish.


SymPy 0.7.5 has 2 repositories options, so it can be :
- easily installed by using Warehouse / OpenRepos.net. Install Warehouse (OpenRepos.net client) for MeeGo Harmattan, then open Warehouse, search for "SymPy", enable the repository and install;
- installed by using my Harmattan repository.
SymPy 0.7.5 takes about 35 MB after install.

It is strongly suggested to also install IPython for MeeGo Harmattan, so the interactive use of MatPlotLib/NumPy becomes a lot easier
From IPython 0.13.1 Harmattan onwards, there are 3 interfaces to choose :

1) IPython 0.13 terminal interface :
1.a) Tap the IPython icon, then :
In [1]: from sympy import *
In [2]: init_printing()
The "init_printing()" is used to show pretty printing outputs.
If you want to use both PyLab (MatPlotLib + NumPy) and SymPy, always load PyLab before SymPy 0.7.3 :
In [1]: %pylab
In [2]: from sympy import *
In [3]: init_printing()
1.b) Or in Terminal, type :
$ isympy
or
$ isympy -p ascii
if (a large) output is badly not aligned.
For 1.a and 1.b, if (a large) output is badly not aligned, then use "init_printing(use_unicode=False)".

2) IPython 0.13 Qt console :
2.a) Tap the "IPy QtConsole" icon, then :
In [1]: from sympy import *
In [2]: init_printing()
The "init_printing()" is used to show nice outputs using LaTeX.
If you want to use both PyLab (MatPlotLib + NumPy) and SymPy, always load PyLab before SymPy 0.7.3 :
In [1]: %pylab inline
In [2]: from sympy import *
In [3]: init_printing()
The magic command "%pylab inline" shows plots embedded in Qt console, while "%pylab" displays plots in interactive MatPlotLib (Qt4) backend.
2.b) Or in Terminal, type :
$ ipython qtconsole
or to also load PyLab (MatPlotLib + NumPy) :
$ ipython qtconsole --pylab
or PyLab with embedded plots :
$ ipython qtconsole --pylab=inline
then :
In [1]: from sympy import *
In [2]: init_printing()

3) IPython 0.13 Notebook :
3.a) Tap the "IPy Notebook" icon, then :
In [1]: from sympy import *
In [2]: init_printing()
The "init_printing()" is used to show nice outputs using LaTeX.
If you want to use both PyLab (MatPlotLib + NumPy) and SymPy, always load PyLab before SymPy 0.7.3 :
In [1]: %pylab inline
In [2]: from sympy import *
In [3]: init_printing()
The magic command "%pylab inline" shows plots embedded in IPython notebook, while "%pylab" displays plots in interactive MatPlotLib (Qt4) backend.
3.b) Or in Terminal, type :
$ ipython notebook
or also loading PyLab (MatPlotLib + NumPy) :
$ ipython notebook --pylab
or PyLab with embedded plots :
$ ipython notebook --pylab-inline
then :
In [1]: from sympy import *
In [2]: init_printing()

The terminal commands of 1.b, 2.b and 3.b can be used in new .desktop files in "/usr/share/applications", just copy "ipy*.desktop" to fit your needs.

For making SymPy 0.7.5 plots on MeeGo Harmattan there are 2 options, both using MatPlotLib 1.2.1 (install it following the topic "MatPlotLib - 2D & 3D plots for MeeGo Harmattan") :
- new plotting module, see post #30 for more detailed instructions and examples on Nokia N9;
- mpmath plotting functions, see post #32 for more detailed instructions and examples on Nokia N9.


Click the install icon in Maemo.org Downloads or enable extras repository, search for SymPy in the application manager and install "SymPy interactive shell", it will install IPython (if not installed), SymPy (0.7.1), isympy (X-terminal script with some initialization of variables and output type) and its icon.
To install the new SymPy v0.7.3 for Maemo 5 Fremantle, enable extras-testing or extras-devel repository and search for SymPy in the application manager and install "SymPy interactive shell" 0.7.3. SymPy 0.7.3 about 20 MB after install but it is optified.
To have 3 plotting options on Maemo 5, use SymPy 0.7.2 instead, by downloading :
python-sympy_0.7.2-1maemo1_all.deb (2.3 MB)
then installing it with :
$ dpkg -i python-sympy_0.7.2-1maemo1_all.deb

To use SymPy 0.7.x on Maemo 5 :
1) the "SymPy" icon or the terminal command "isympy" opens IPython terminal (if installed, or else just X Terminal and Python) and setup SymPy interactive mode;
2) If you want to use both PyLab (MatPlotLib 1.0.0 + NumPy 1.4.0) and SymPy.
2.a) Tap the IPython icon, then always load PyLab before SymPy :
In [1]: %pylab
In [2]: from sympy import *
In [3]: init_printing()
The "init_printing()" is used to show pretty printing outputs.
2.b) Or in Terminal, type :
$ ipython --pylab
then :
In [1]: from sympy import *
In [2]: init_printing()

There are 3 options for making SymPy 0.7.2 plots on Maemo 5 Fremantle, while only the 1st option and 3rd options work with SymPy 0.7.1/0.7.3 :
1) "Plot()" for 2D/3D interactive plots, using PyGlet". See post #11 of this topic for more detailed instructions to use 'Plot()' on Maemo 5.
See also the topic PyGlet for Maemo 5 or the PyGlet for Maemo 5 web page for more details. To install PyGlet on Maemo 5, just open "X terminal" :
$ sudo gainroot
# apt-get update
# apt-get install python-pyglet
Beware that PyGlet takes 6.4 MB (it is optified) after install plus its mesa dependencies use 5.2 MB in root partition.
2) new plotting module, using MatPlotLib. See post #30 for more detailed instructions and examples on Nokia N900. To install it on Maemo 5 takes about 39 MB (which 3 MB not-optified), use the X Terminal with Extras-Devel repository enabled and type :
$ sudo gainroot
# apt-get update
# apt-get install python-matplotlib
Then, as user, create the folder "/home/user/.matplotlib" and the file "/home/user/.matplotlib/matplotlibrc" with the text :
datapath : /usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data
backend : Qt4Agg
3) mpmath plotting functions, using MatPlotLib. See post #32 for more detailed instructions and examples on Nokia N900. Follow the instructions above to install MatPlotLib.

To Nokia N900 users, please help promote SymPy, SymPy Interactive Shell and SymPy Documentation to extras repository by voting in :
SymPy 0.7.3-3maemo3
SymPy interactive shell 0.7.3-1fremantle1
SymPy documentation and examples


Click the install icon in Maemo.org Downloads (the description still shows v0.7.1 but it will install v0.7.3) or enable extras repository, search for SymPy in the application manager and install "SymPy Interactive Shell", it will install IPython (if not installed, using 6 MB after install), SymPy 0.7.3, isympy (X-terminal script with some initialization of variables and output type) and its icon.
SymPy v0.7.3 (20 MB) and its dependency python2.5-dev (other 15 MB) takes about 35 MB after install.
The SymPy icon or the terminal command "isympy" launches the IPython interactive shell and loads SymPy with some initialization (of variables and output type).


See post #36 and post #38 for detailed SymPy benchmarks.

SymPy is also used by "Integral", "Derivative" and "Limit" on Maemo 4 & 5. With SymPy 0.7.2 onwards, due to the new beta function, beta can't be used anymore as symbol/variable.

Update : now PyGlet is released for Maemo 5, so "Plot" and "preview" work only on Maemo 5 / Nokia N900.

SymPy has some features that depend on "pyglet" package : "Plot" (2D and 3D graphics) and "preview" (to render output in LaTeX in a window).

But as far as I know "pyglet" does not work on Maemo 5 (due to some problems with Open GL ES). I have tried installing from Python source without success.

So : "Plot" and "preview" don't work on SymPy for Maemo 4/5.

About SymPy history on Maemo, MeeGo and Sailfish/Mer :

- SymPy 0.6.6 (December 2009) was released on January 2010 for Maemo 5 by Tom Tanner;

- SymPy 0.7.1 (29/06/2011) was released on September 12th 2011 for Maemo 5, with the "SymPy Interactive Shell" package including an icon and isympy so SymPy is more visible to end users. Plotting was available using "Plot()" with PyGlet and mpmath plotting with MatPlotLib;

- SymPy 0.7.1 was released on October 3rd 2011 for Maemo 4, then the "SymPy Interactive Shell" package in 22/02/2012 (after IPython 0.10.2 release on Maemo 4), with no plotting options;

- SymPy 0.7.1 for MeeGo Harmattan was released on 06/11/2011, with mpmath plotting using MatPlotLib;

- SymPy 0.7.2 (16/10/2012) was released on 03/01/2013 for MeeGo Harmattan and on 09/01/2013 for Maemo 4 and Maemo 5. With this version, there are 3 plotting options on Maemo 5 ("Plot()" using PyGlet , new plotting module and mpmath plotting with MatPlotLib) and 2 plotting options on MeeGo Harmattan (new plotting module and mpmath plotting with MatPlotLib);

- SymPy 0.7.3 (13/07/2013) released on 05/08/2013 for Maemo 4, Maemo 5 and MeeGo Harmattan. Due to Python 2.5 limitation, this is the last version for Maemo 4, and maybe also for Maemo 5. This version has 2 plotting options on Maemo 5 ( "Plot()" using PyGlet and mpmath plotting with MatPlotLib) and 2 plotting options on MeeGo Harmattan (new plotting module and mpmath plotting with MatPlotLib).

- SymPy 0.7.5 (22/04/2014) released on 04/05/2014 for Sailfish.

- SymPy 0.7.4.1 (15/12/2013) released on 23/09/2014 for MeeGo Harmattan.

- SymPy 0.7.5 (22/02/2014) released on 24/09/2014 for MeeGo Harmattan.

- SymPy 0.7.6.1 (03/09/2015) released on 07/08/2016 for Sailfish, both for Python 2.7 and Python 3.

I plan to keep SymPy for Maemo / MeeGo / Mer updated.

SymPy is developed by the SymPy team. I am mainly a maintainer of SymPy for Maemo, with just one small source code contribution to SymPy.

SymPy (python-sympy package) is now in extras repository for Maemo 5.

But "SymPy interactive shell" (python-sympy-ui) and "SymPy documentation and examples" (python-sympy-doc) are still in extras-testing for Maemo 5, waiting for the votes to be promoted to extras.

Update : "SymPy interactive shell" (python-sympy-ui) also depends on IPython being promoted to extras repository.

Corrected the time to load SymPy, it is faster due to byte compiling of Python files :

- on Nokia N900, 6 s using SymPy icon, 3 s using "from sympy import *" in Python/iPython interactive shell;

- on Nokia N810, 6 s using "from sympy import *" in Python/iPython interactive shell.

Total size of SymPy after installation is 18.5 MB (Maemo 4 & 5). SymPy .py files take 7.4 MB, the rest are .pyc (compiled Python) files created during installation to speed up SymPy loading.

Some teasing, SymPy running on Nokia N9 :



It was on a Nokia Store in Rio de Janeiro where I have used one Nokia N9 for 1-2 hours

I have installed Python, PySide, etc, downloaded SymPy (tar.gz), uncompressed it and ran Python shell, then imported SymPy. SymPy loaded and ran well, very fast.

I am trying to package SymPy for MeeGo Harmattan (Nokia N9/N950). Then I will announce it here.

To Nokia N9/N950 (MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan, i.e., "Maemo 6") users, I am glad to announce the 2nd version of SymPy package available to download here :

python-sympy_0.7.1-harmattan-2_all.deb

It is strongly suggested to also install IPython for MeeGo Harmattan, so the interactive use of SymPy becomes a lot easier.

SymPy 0.7.1 Harmattan-1 (06/11/2011) :
- 1st release to MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan;
- about 13 MB after install;

SymPy 0.7.1 Harmattan-2 (13/11/2011) :
- added SymPy tests;
- about 19 MB after install.

Some screenshots on a Nokia N950 (RDA).
Typing isympy on Terminal when IPython is not installed :


Typing isympy on Terminal when IPython is installed (the input and outputs are numbered) :


Apps information about SymPy :


How to use SymPy on Harmattan :
Open the Terminal, type :
$ isympy
If (a large) output is badly not aligned, type 'init_printing(use_unicode=False)'.

SymPy on Harmattan takes 19 MB after install, but it also needs Python/Python-Support packages (23 MB) which are also used by other softwares.

Time to load SymPy in X terminal :
Nokia N810 @ 400 MHz : 7.3-9.3 s
Nokia N900 @ 600 MHz : 2.9-3.7 s
Nokia N9/N950 @ 1 GHz : 2.3-3.4 s

Next steps for MeeGo Harmattan :
- release iPython package for Harmattan (DONE);
- release SymPy (python-sympy) in a public MeeGo Harmattan repository;
- release "SymPy"/"SymPy interactive shell" (python-sympy-ui) for Harmattan with icon ?
- release "SymPy documentation and examples" (python-sympy-doc) ?
- release softwares depending on SymPy, but with user interface modified (Qt Quick Components instead of QWidgets) to Harmattan : Limit, Integral, Derivative, etc.

Update : IPython for MeeGo Harmattan is now released (14/11/2011).

The Maemo 4 and MeeGo Harmattan versions of SymPy do not yet use iPython, instead the simpler Python shell. On Maemo 4 because iPython 0.8 is too old and incompatible with SymPy (isympy script). On MeeGo Harmattan because there is not yet a iPython package available.

Advantages of iPython shell, which is called by isympy or the icon of "SymPy" on Maemo 5 :
- tab (or ctrl+i) completion for objects;
- input history navigation using up and down arrows;
- search input history by typing partial input then up/down arrow to show matching lines, or ctrl+r to have a serch prompt;
- input line n can be retrieved using '_in', 'In[n]', '_ih[n]', and _i, _ii, _iii to access the previous, next previous and next-next previous inputs;
- output line n can be retrieved using '_n', 'Out[n]', '_oh[n]', and _, __, ___ access the previous, next previous and next-next previous outputs;
- information about objects using '?word' or 'word?', full information with '??word' or 'word??';
- magic command system, like '%run file.py', '%pwd';
- run system commands with '!' as prefix, e.g., '!ls".

More details in :
iPython interactive tutorial
iPython Interactive Reference

I am working to make iPython 0.10.2 available to Maemo 4 & 5 and iPython 0.10.2 or 0.11 to MeeGo Harmattan. So SymPy could also use iPython shell on Maemo 4 and MeeGo Harmattan.

Released 2nd version of SymPy for MeeGo Harmattan, see above.

Using SymPy is now simpler : just type "isympy" in Terminal, it loads the Python shell, then SymPy with automatic definition of some variables and output type.

For MeeGo Harmattan users : SymPy is now even simpler to use, just install IPython for MeeGo Harmattan. See the above posts.