Eliminating Monotonous Mathematics with FORMAC
The FORMAC (FORmula MAnipulation Compiler)
programming system provides a powerful tool for 
performing mathematical analysis.  It is an extension
of FORTRAN IV which permits the use of the computer 
to perform the tedious algebraic computations that arise
in many different fields.  Among the areas in 
which it has been successfully used are: differentiation
of complicated expressions, expansion of truncated 
power series, solution of simultaneous equations with
literal coefficients, nonlinear maximum likelihood 
estimation, tensor analysis, and generation of the coefficients
of equations in Keplerian motion.  These 
types of analysis-which arose in the solution of specific
practical problems in physics, engineering, 
astronomy, statistics and astronautics-are discussed in
the paper.  In addition to its usage for specific 
problem solutions, FORMAC can also be used to automate
the analysis phase in certain production programming. 
 Several such applications are presented.
CACM October, 1966
Tobey, R. G.
