Here, I will discuss some noteworthy issues pertinent to computer algebra systems, both general purpose and special purpose. What is the mark of a good computer algebra system? What can be improved? How easy is it to use these systems, really? Although this presentation is not a demo, it will serve as an introduction to the demo session. Many examples of computer algebra in action (but on transparencies) will be presented covering a variety of mathematical realms (and using a mixture of systems). Please see
http://math.unm.edu/~wester/cas_review.html
for a large collection of examples (> 500) run on Axiom, Derive, Macsyma, Maple, Mathematica. MuPAD and REDUCE, categorized by topic.