I just put the second pre-pre-test-release of Algebra Explorer up on my website.
It’s still does just a small fraction of what I hope it will do eventually, but what it can do is starting to become a little more meaningful. That is, it’s actually sophisticated enough now to help someone do a homework assignment or demonstrate a problem in a lesson (but only if it’s on a very early chapter in Algebra I). If you want to see what I mean, open up Algebra Explorer and try entering something like “(x+1)(x-1)” and select “execute/simplify” and you’ll see what it can do.
Anyway, the next thing I want to add to Algebra Explorer is the ability to handle division. This is going to require some serious work on the GUI in order to show “x +1 over y - 1″ the way you would on a white board (as opposed to showing it as “(x+1)/(y-1)” - which is how people typed in equations on computers 20 years ago). Then I need to add in all the logic to simplify fractions, find common denominators, etc.
The next release is going to take a while.
Anyway, I think I’ll take a little break and catch up on some other work - maybe post about something besides programming for once.
