Brief description, with links


Each of these popular symbolic and/or numerical mathematics software packages has its own strong points.
All are available on some computers on the C.U. campus, though rarely all on a single computer.
Mathematica,     Matlab,     Maple,     IDL           -- compare commands
  Mathematica
is the premier all-purpose mathematical software package. It integrates swift and accurate symbolic and numerical calculation, all-purpose graphics, and a powerful programming language. It has a sophisticated ``notebook interface'' which is great for documenting and displaying work. It can save individual graphics in any graphics format. Its functional programming language (as opposed to procedural) makes it possible to do complex programming using very short concise commands; it does, however, allow the use of basic procedural programming constructs like Do and For.

Drawbacks: steeper learning curve for beginners used to procedural languages; more expensive
links:   BASICS,   Local resources,   Wolfram Inc.,   Wolfram technical FAQs
Matlab
Matlab combines efficient computation, visualization and programming for linear-algebraic technical work and other mathematical areas. It is widely used in the Engineering department.

Drawbacks: Not for analytical/symbolic math
links:   MathWorks Matlab home page
Maple
Maple is powerful analytical and mathematical software which does the same sorts of things that Mathematica does, with similar high quality. Maple's programming language procedural -- like C or Fortran or Basic -- although it has a few functional programming constructs.

Drawbacks: Worksheet interface/typesetting not as developed as Mathematica's, but it is less expensive
links:   Waterloo Maple web site
IDL
(Interactive Data Language) excels at processing real-world data, especially graphics, and has a reasonably simple syntax, especially for those familiar with Fortran or C. IDL makes it as easy as possible to read in data from files of numerous scientific data formats. IDL is very popular at NASA, universities and research facilities, and especially at C.U. where it was originally developed and is free (see site license).

Drawbacks: Does not do symbolic math
links:   basic IDL,   RSI IDL home page