Macsyma is a computer algebra system that was originally developed from 1967 to 1982 at the MIT AI Lab as part of Project MAC.

In 1982, MIT submitted a copy of Macsyma to the United States Department of Energy, which was one of the major funders of Macsyma development. This version of Macsyma was called DOE Macsyma.

DOE Macsyma was licensed to Symbolics in 1982. Symbolics developed Macsyma for several years but eventually came to see it as a diversion from the sales of Lisp machines, which they considered their main business. Macsyma, Inc., was founded in 1992 by a former employee of Symbolics, and acquired Macsyma from Symbolics and continued development for several years. In 1999, Macsyma was acquired by Tenedos LLC, a holding company. At present the holding company has not rereleased or resold Macsyma, but it continues to be distributed by Symbolics.

There is also an open source version, called Maxima, which is based on the 1982 DOE Macsyma.

External links

• Symbolics, current Macsyma distributors

• XML, why Mma is popular, was...Re: [Maxima] Lunch with George Carrette (remarks on the history of Macsyma by a cofounder of Macsyma, Inc.)

• [Maxima] The Macsyma Saga (further historical remarks)

• Maxima - a sophisticated computer algebra system (Maxima home page at SourceForge.net)