Scilab/octave/maxima Progress?, Anyone get these running well? Options

[stuffman]

With the recent Slashdot article about open-source mathematics programs, my interest in getting a good CAS for my Zaurus is once again quite high.

The commercial software available just doesn't seem to cut it. Searching through the threads here, I noticed there was a bit of work done on Maxima (by lardman), but things just seemed to drop off a few months ago. Right now, it's console-only, which makes use a bit more complicated for quick calculations. If someone could get Texmacs working under Qt, and get some nice little function-entry toolbars (a la Mathematica / Maple) to speed input (and allow use in non-clamshell mode), it would be pretty nice. Problem is, my Linux skills are weak, and my knowledge of compiling stuff is even weaker. I'm sure many other people are interested in a good CAS for thier Zaurus, and there are definately enough talented people around here to work out any issues in porting. To me, this would be a killer app to have in school. Sometimes the TI-89 doesn't cut it, and a workstation with Mathematica is too far away or impractical to use.

Scilab would also be a killer app; Octave is nice too, but a working Scilab would nearly preclude the need for it. Even though I use Cacko right now, I would have no problem switching to pdaXrom to run any of these programs with a nice graphical environment.

Last I heard, "cgillot" got xmaxima working working under pdaXrom, but no instructions for compiling or .ipks have appeared yet.