Stephen Wolfram Q&A
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March 1, 1993
From: Interview by Paul Wellin, Mathematica in Education
The early computer algebra systems—Macsyma, SMP, etc.—were they used purely as research tools or was there some notion that they might be used in the classroom also?
At that time it was not really practical to think of using these things in the classroom. SMP was built to run on the then-emerging class of mini-computer systems such as VAXes, and VAXes were in the multi-hundred-thousand-dollar price range, so it wasn’t realistic to think of those things being used in a serious way in the classroom.