Goals of Mathlify

I started a hobby project during the covid lockdowns to generate mathematical problems.

And before I knew it, what started as a series of helper functions morphed into something resembling a computer algebra system (CAS).

"If it looks like a duck, ...". Thus the Mathlify library/CAS is born.

Why not use a preexisting CAS?

I do not need a powerful and general system: just enough to handle material common at the high school and beginning college level will suffice.

Working on the web platform I also wish to stay within the JavaScript language to facilitate interactive apps.

Currently my main goals for the project are starting to crystalize around the following two ideas.

Main priorities in developing Mathlify

Idiomatic code

The program should operate at an abstraction level similar to our target audience. The code written by an end-user should resemble the steps a teacher will lay out to his/her students.

Mathematical display

Mathematical display should be a first-class citizen. We mathematics folks love our white/blackboards because the display output is produced simultaneously alongside problem solving and computational thinking.

Most of today's digital mathematical content are generated in two steps: we perform the necessary analysis and computation (using pen and paper, calculators and/or a CAS of choice) and then digitize our findings (on your word processor or typesetting language).

I hope that Mathlify can help us accomplish both steps simultaneously.