1.1   Introduction

SymPy is a Python library for symbolic mathematics. It aims to become a full-featured computer algebra system (CAS) while keeping the code as simple as possible in order to be comprehensible and easily extensible. SymPy is written entirely in Python and does not require any external libraries.

1.2   First Steps with SymPy

The easiest way to download it is to go to http://code.google.com/p/sympy/ and download the latest tarball from the Featured Downloads:

Download part of the SymPy's webpage

Unpack it:

$ tar xzf sympy-0.5.12.tar.gz

and try it from a Python intepreter:

$ cd sympy-0.5.12
$ python
Python 2.4.4 (#2, Jan  3 2008, 13:36:28)
[GCC 4.2.3 20071123 (prerelease) (Debian 4.2.2-4)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from sympy import Symbol, cos
>>> x = Symbol("x")
>>> (1/cos(x)).series(x, 0, 10)
1 + (1/2)*x**2 + (5/24)*x**4 + (61/720)*x**6 + (277/8064)*x**8 + O(x**10)

You can use SymPy as shown above and this is indeed the recommended way if you use it in your program. You can also install it using ./setup.py install as any other Python module, or just install a package in your favourite Linux distribution (see e.g. Installing SymPy in Debian).

$ sudo apt-get install python-sympy
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  python-sympy
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 18 not upgraded.
Need to get 991kB of archives.
After this operation, 5976kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://ftp.cz.debian.org unstable/main python-sympy 0.5.12-1 [991kB]
Fetched 991kB in 2s (361kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package python-sympy.
(Reading database ... 232619 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking python-sympy (from .../python-sympy_0.5.12-1_all.deb) ...
Setting up python-sympy (0.5.12-1) ...

For other means how to install SymPy, consult the Downloads section on the SymPy's webpage.

1.3   isympy Console

For experimenting with new features, or when figuring out how to do things, you can use our special wrapper around IPython

$ cd sympy-0.5.12
$ ./bin/isympy
Python 2.4.4 console for SymPy 0.5.12-hg. These commands were executed:
>>> from __future__ import division
>>> from sympy import *
>>> x, y, z = symbols('xyz')
>>> k, m, n = symbols('kmn', integer=True)
>>> f = Function("f")

Documentation can be found at http://sympy.org/


In [1]: (1/cos(x)).series(x, 0, 10)
Out[1]:
     2      4       6        8
    x    5*x    61*x    277*x
1 + ── + ──── + ───── + ────── + O(x**10)
    2     24     720     8064

Note

Commands entered by you are bold. Thus what we did in 3 lines in a regular Python interpeter can be done in 1 line in isympy.

2.1   Documentation

Recommended way of learning SymPy is to go to the main Documentation page on SymPy's webpage and go through tutorial. Then browse other links and the wiki. It's also very useful to look into tests, that are located in the tests/ directories.

3.1   Program

Go to issues that are sorted by priority and simply find something that you would like to get fixed and fix it. Feel free to consult with us on the mailinglist. Then send your patch either to the issues or the malinglist. See the SympyDevelopment wiki, but don't worry about it too much if you find it too formal - simply get in touch with us on the mailinglist and we'll help you get your patch accepted.

3.2   User's Guide

To edit this User's Guide, edit the file guide.txt and then execute:

$ make
...

This will generate html files in the same directory.

To learn how to write the ReST syntax consult the ReStructuredText web page.

4.1   Credits

SymPy was written by the SymPy Development Team, to find more information about who wrote what, please visit the Contributors wiki page.

This manual was written by Ondřej Čertík (ondrej@certik.cz).

4.2   License

Unless stated otherwise, all files in the SymPy project, SymPy's webpage (and wiki), all images and all documentation including this User's Guide is licensed using the new BSD license:

Copyright (c) 2006, 2007, 2008 SymPy developers

All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

  a. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
     this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
  b. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
     notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
     documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
  c. Neither the name of the SymPy nor the names of its contributors
     may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
     without specific prior written permission.


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AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
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ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR
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DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER
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