Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog

June 2, 2007

Freeware Math Programs

Maxima - A general purpose CAS (Computer Algebra System) is a program that’s able to perform symbolic manipulation for the resolution of common problems. As a matter of fact, modern CAS covers an extremely wide range of functionalities
…
Scilab - Matlab is the standard for numerical computing, but there are a few clones and valid alternatives that are entirely free. Scilab is the closest that you can get to Matlab without spending a penny. It’s very compatible with Matlab (albeit not 100%) but it’s really flexible, powerful and comes with a Matlab converter and Scicos which is a block diagram modeler and simulator.

R - For statistical computing and analysis in the Open Source world, it doesn’t get any better than R. It is a programming language and environment that enables you to do pretty much anything that the commercial software (S-Plus) does. It is so widely adopted that it can be considered a standard in the field.

lpsolve is another one that I like for linear (integer) programming. LaTeX is also a great tool - a typesetting system; it includes features designed for the production of technical and scientific documentation (many will already be familiar with it but if you are not, check it out).

by curiouscat Tags: Math, Open Access, Products, Students
Permalink to: Freeware Math Programs Trackback: http://engineering.curiouscatblog.net/2007/06/02/freeware-math-programs/trackback/

One Response to “Freeware Math Programs”

Robert Says:
June 2nd, 2007 at 6:14 pm
For several–specific–numerical mathematical routines, there is also the following URL:

http://www.akiti.ca/Mathfxns.html

The routines posted off this page are based on good-quality code, mostly from the NETLIB repository of algorithms. Very handy (quick, easy-to-use, and free!) for when numbers are required, but a user might not want to install and start up a whole software package.

– Robert