This is only tangentially related to the post, but one thing I feel sore about is the lack of consolidation of computer algebra efforts. A computer algebra system is one of the most difficult pieces of software to build and make/keep useful, yet it continues to be reinvented decade after decade. (All while Mathematica in the background continues to improve unboundedly.) Seriously, it's easy to pour person-centuries of time into a CAS and still not achieve state-of-the-art. We have Maxima, Axiom and its two (!) forks, SymPy, REDUCE, Symbolics.jl, Mathics, SageMath, FORM, Yacas, Xcas, etc., but there's been no clear leadership to really make for a clear and unequivocal open-source success story. Symbolics.jl is the latest one to join the pack, starting in 2021, while Maxima began its life in 1967—a whopping span of five decades. From this blog post and its predecessor, it's clear that SymPy needs an overhaul at its core. (I personally believe building a CAS on Python is a mistake and predestined for eventual failure.)<p>If I could wave my magic wand, I'd have Axiom (or one of its forks) be the "winner" that everybody rallies around, with a change in leadership around it. It has the most advanced math, and it was built by the titans of computer algebra research. To this day, despite being developed by a skeleton crew, it does math no other "more modern" CAS can do. And it's built on a sane language that will never die.<p>The world deserves a robust, supported, high-performing CAS. Computer algebra could be as ubiquitous to computation as ordinary arithmetic, but everything non-commercial just falls short for general use.