Mathematical Software
On this page I have concentrated on cheaper software that you or I can afford. I haven't mentioned the heavyweights like Maple, Mathcad, Mathematica*, or Scientific Workplace which cost hundreds of pounds to buy. They are remarkable pieces of software but only the better funded institutions can afford them. All the programs work on a PC running Windows 95/98 and/or Windows NT but some may work on other platforms.
* You can get Mathematica to find your integrals for you for free at The Integrator
1. Lotus Word Pro (part of SmartSuite)
- What's a word processor doing here? Well mathematicians may have
had a lot to do with the development of computers but the one thing
computers seem to do badly is writing mathematics. HTML is even
worse, even putting
here means using an image. E-mail, which may mean using plain text,
is a nightmare - see the handout Mathematics
using email (also in Word Pro 97,
TEX and Word
97 formats) that I give to my students.
- If you've used the equation editor in Word you may well have given up. But there's a much better alternative and that's Word Pro. You will find that its equation editor is very easy to use and allows you to easily mix text and mathematics. Much of the maths can be entered using the keyboard only thus making typing so much faster.
- The best news is that you may be able to get it for free as it has been given away, unrestricted, by magazines such as PC Plus or PC Pro.
- One of the reasons that Word Pro is so good is that the equation editor has been written by the authors of the next program:
- If you've used the equation editor in Word you may well have given up. But there's a much better alternative and that's Word Pro. You will find that its equation editor is very easy to use and allows you to easily mix text and mathematics. Much of the maths can be entered using the keyboard only thus making typing so much faster.
2. Scientific Notebook
- This is the little brother of Scientific Workplace which is a
system for producing typeset mathematics of a quality usually only
found in books and papers. However, the typesetting is the only thing
that Scientific Notebook doesn't do; though it can print in the
normal way.
- If you've ever wanted to type mathematics easily then this is the software for you. The ease of typing has got to be tried to be believed. And that's not all. It will actually calculate the mathematics as well. If you want to factorize large numbers, differentiate algebraically, draw graphs, solve equations etc etc then Scientific Notebook will do it. As you can see I'm a real fan especially as it is a lot cheaper than most systems.
- You can download a free Scientific Notebook viewer (UK) or US - this reads TEX files which is standard format for mathematics files or order a free 30-day full demo from MacKichan Software (US) or Scientific Word Ltd (UK).
- If you use Scientific notebook to produce TEX files and want to convert them to HTML then you'll find software and links to do this at TEX Converter.
- Introduction to TeX and LaTeX and Getting Started with LaTeX will tell you more about this interesting file format.
- If you've ever wanted to type mathematics easily then this is the software for you. The ease of typing has got to be tried to be believed. And that's not all. It will actually calculate the mathematics as well. If you want to factorize large numbers, differentiate algebraically, draw graphs, solve equations etc etc then Scientific Notebook will do it. As you can see I'm a real fan especially as it is a lot cheaper than most systems.
3. Postscript Viewer
- A lot of mathematics is published in postscript format which is meant for postscript printers. Most of us haven't got one of these so you'll need a viewer instead. You can use Ghostscript, which is free. An alternative is the shareware RoPS which you can try for 21 days before payment.
4. Pi Calculator
- This is a small program written by Keith Maune, complete with
Visual Basic source code, which will calculateto
any number of decimal places that you specify. Download this 7.2K
zipped file from here.
- There are lots of other programs that will calculate
to
umpteen decimal places at jasonp's
Pi Programs Page.
- There are lots of other programs that will calculate
5. Winplot
- Winplot is a general-purpose plotting utility, which can draw (and animate) curves and surfaces presented in a variety of formats. It's free and can be found at Peanut Software
6. The Geometer's Sketchpad
- Want to draw all those geometry diagrams that prove some result
about triangles and circles? Then you should try The
Geometer's Sketchpad. It describes itself as "Geometry
software for Euclidean, coordinate, transformational, analytic, and
fractal geometry".
- There's a free demo to try out.
7. Mathcad Explorer
- Mathcad itself may be expensive but you can get 'free read-only
version of Mathcad for browsing live mathematical documents on your
computer, your network, or the Web'. Mathcad is very popular amongst
engineers who use mathematics and is also the recommended software
for some courses at The
Open University.
- You'll find it at The MathSoft Web Store or Mathcad Explorer: Adept Scientific
8. Winarc
- This would be better named as Wingames. It's more free sofware from Peanut Software and features the sort of games that appeal to and have been analysed by mathematicians, such as Hex, Life and Rubik's Cube.
9. Winstats
- If you want a statistics program that will not only analyse your data but also run simulations to save you rolling dice or whatever then you should try Winstats at, guess where, Peanut Software. By now you will realise that this page is a source of a lot of good free mathematical software.
10. TkPaint
- If you want to prepare high quality diagrams then this is the
program to use. However, to maintain this quality it outputs in
Encapsulated Postscript, so you'll need to be able to deal with this
type of file.
- This is a vector graphics program for "drawing book quality figures, slide presentations, diagrams, and pictures. It can be very useful for book writers (who like to draw their figures), papers writers, lecturers who need to prepare good quality slides without having to learn too much technical details, struggle with monstrous programs, and spend too much money."
- Talking of money, it's free from TKPAINT HOME PAGE
- You can find a list of other software at Guide to Available Mathematical Software or at Mathematical Software Sources
- This is a vector graphics program for "drawing book quality figures, slide presentations, diagrams, and pictures. It can be very useful for book writers (who like to draw their figures), papers writers, lecturers who need to prepare good quality slides without having to learn too much technical details, struggle with monstrous programs, and spend too much money."