@nm @Preben Alsholm

Thank you for your comments on simplifying solutions containing trigonometric expressions and also on the problem with one of the examples in the worksheet "Improvements in solving PDE & BC in Maple 2018.1". The post has been updated, showing results obtained using the Physics Update number 73:

- solutions to PDE & BC problems that involve trigonometric functions are now automatically better simplified, as in example 4;

- example 1, under "Improved handling of piecewise, eval/diff in the given problem" has been changed so that it no longer has inconsistent boundary and initial conditions, and also so that it is more easily readable with the variables ordered as (x,t) instead of (t,x). I did keep the conditions all together, because one of the complexities that pdsolve/BC must handle is that it does not require users to enter boundary and initial conditions separately, so that the program itself must find which is which.

Katherina

@Preben Alsholm 

Thanks for your thoughtful comments! The worksheet has been corrected according to your first comment:  `pdsolve/BC`:-EvaluateBCAtSolution is now a PDEtools:-Library command, available by installing the Physics Update number 65. As for the second comment, there is indeed labelling going on, it's just to check that the two results just above are equal.

Katherina

@I_Mariusz 

On the other hand, out of the PDE problems with initial/boundary conditions in the "What is New in Maple 2016" page, Mathematica can solve just 4 out of 10 (see WhatIsNewInMapleForPDEs.pdf). I haven't checked how many they can solve out of the examples in the Maple help pages. It would be interesting to have a comparison between Maple and Mathematica's performances for PDEs - maybe using Polyanin's handbooks? - like the one that exists for ODEs. 

Katherina