EUROCAL '83 is the second major conference which is organized by the European computer algebra community. However, there is a remarkable difference with the
previous symposium, EUROCAL '82, held in Marseille in April 1982 (this Series,
nr. 144). In view of the success EUROCAM '82 certainly was, it was decided during
this meeting to formally establish a European organization, called SAME,
Symbolic and Algebraic Manipulation in Europe. This decision naturally evolved from
the increasing interest in algebraic computation and symbolic manipulation
in Europe during the past decade. The main motivation behind the creation of SAME
was the wish to be able to easily coordinate the activities of different smaller
groups, some of which had already a "long" history, at least in terms of
computer science. Hence EUROCAL '83 is the first reflection of the existing
intentions to annually organize meetings in Europe.