# Best options to simplify?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/best-options-to-simplify/49492>\
**Category:** Modelling & Simulations\
**Created:** [November 3, 2020, 12:11am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/best-options-to-simplify/49492 "2020-11-03T00:11:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![brett\_knoss](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/brett_knoss/32/13050_2.png) [@brett\_knoss](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/brett_knoss)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 12:11am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/best-options-to-simplify/49492/1 "2020-11-03T00:11:04Z")

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What are some packages that work well to simplify? I could not find simplification in SymEngine, and from what I read, none was built as of 2017. SymbolUtilities and ModelingToolkit, do a certain amount of arithmetic but don’t rewrite expressions.

I had good results with Reduce.jl, but that package is a nightmare. I need to install some stuff to get Maxima.jl to work in Windows, which leaves SymPy.jl. I’ve been avoiding Python out of fear that it might be too slow, but for light work, it should be fine. Are there any other opitions that I should consider?

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**Author:** ![ChrisRackauckas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/chrisrackauckas/32/77_2.png) [@ChrisRackauckas](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ChrisRackauckas)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 3:17am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/best-options-to-simplify/49492/2 "2020-11-03T03:17:18Z")

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Open issues on ModelingToolkit and we’ll incrementally make it better. It’s a very young, basically unreleased, project but the only way to improve is to see more test cases.

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**Author:** ![brett\_knoss](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/brett_knoss/32/13050_2.png) [@brett\_knoss](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/brett_knoss)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 4:01am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/best-options-to-simplify/49492/3 "2020-11-03T04:01:34Z")

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I’ll do that, if it helps to train the AI. In the meantime, I was thinking of using Maxima, but I need to set a path enviroment, to get it to load in Windows. Would you know anything about stuff like that?

These are the instruction that are in github:

> On Windows you will also need to add the directory containing the `maxima.bat` executable to your `PATH` environment variable so that Julia can find it.