A computer analytic method for solving differential equations

In recent years, numeric analysis has been claiming an increasing share of overall mathematical research activity. The reason for this is apparently the need to have answers --- numeric answers --- to problems of modern technology, along with the development of the stored-program digital computer for carrying through the computations of numeric methods. But this emphasis on numbers is also an indication of the attitude of problem solvers: to use the computer, use numeric methods. And yet these methods are not always adequate. It may be more important to know how x depends on other variables than to know that x = 3.