History of Singular and its relation to Zariski's multiplicty conjecture

Abstract

We give a brief historical overview of the development of the Computer Algebra System SINGULAR: why it came about and how the development was related to the attempt to refute Zariski's multiplicity conjecture.

arXiv comment7 pages, 3 pictures. To be published as an appendix to the article "Topological Equisingularity: Old Problems From a new Perspective" by J. Fernandez De Bobadilla, in "Handbook of Geometry and Topology of Singularities II"