Only recently the special issue "Symbolic Computation in Combinatorics
"
of the Journal of Symbolic Computation came out (as a double issue,
JSC Volume 20, Numbers 5 and 6, November/December 1995, pp. 483 - 770).
It is edited by P. Paule and V. Strehl with the help of the advisory
editors G.E. Andrews, Ph. Flajolet and D. Zeilberger. The issue contains
17 papers from the area.
We quote from the foreword of the JSC guest editors P. Paule and V. Strehl:
"Following an invitation by Moss Sweedler, the director of the
Army Center of Excellence for Symbolic Methods in
Algorithmic Mathematics (ACSyAM)
at Cornell University's Mathematical Sciences Institute (MSI),
the editors of this special issue had the pleasure to organize
a workshop on ``Symbolic Computation in Combinatorics"
at MSI, Cornell University, Ithaca, from September 21-24, 1993.
It focused on the role of computer algebra in solving
problems concerning symbolic manipulation of
combinatorial formulae, for example, (q-)binomial sums,
(q-)hypergeometric series and recurrences, and on
the formal treatment of analytical problems in combinatorics,
including nontrivial applications as well
as new algorithms and system aspects. Although this special issue
is primarily a report on work presented at Cornell,
it also contains contributions not discussed at the workshop,
but which thematically fit into the volume.
Invited talks were given by G.E. Andrews on ``AXIOM and the
Borwein Conjecture", by P. Flajolet and B. Salvy on ``Statistical
Combinatorics", and by D. Zeilberger on ``The Holonomic Paradigm and
beyond".
The difference operator is included in the title in order to
symbolize the progress which has been made since the appearance of the
first JSC special issue with the title ``Symbolic Computation in
Combinatorics" edited by P. Paule and D. Zeilberger, JSC Vol. 14 (1992)."
SAC Newsletter's Home page