SCRATCHPAD: A capsule view

SCRATCHPAD is an interactive system for algebraic manipulation available under the CP/CMS time-sharing system at Yorktown Heights. It features an extensible declarative language for the interactive formulation of symbolic computations. The system is a large and complex body of LISP programs incorporating significant portions of other symbolic systems. Here we present a capsule view of SCRATCHPAD, its language and its capabilities. This is followed by an example which illustrates its use in an application involving the solution of an integral equation.