Mathematica gets an overhaul

-- Test & Measurement World, 5/16/2007 6:38:00 AM

Mathematica, the software package used by engineers and scientists for complex calculations, gets new features with version 6. Mathematica 6 now lets you import data from remote URLs without requiring you to download and save data files.

Mathematica 6 offers a wide range of data importing, such as from Excel, OpenOffice, text formats, binary formats, audio files, images, and medical-file formats. You can use Matehmatica 6 to analyze and manipulate audio and images because it can read the files as data. You can then perform calculations on data using equations that include matricies, FFTs, statistics, and over 300 other functions. Guide pages let you browse through math functions and select them for your calculations.

You can use the bidirectional-calling feature to and from many programming languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, Python, Visual Basic, and LabView through its MathLink protocol. These languages appear as Mathematica objects so you can manipulate data using prewritten code or you can have applications use Mathematica for data manipulation.

Mathematica 6 adds an interactive data-visualization tool. You can enter an argument and data parameters with specified ranges and then interactively manipulate the data. The figure shows the syntax for a sine wave with adjustable amplitude and frequency. To change the variables, simply use the sliders and see how changing the data affects the plot. You can build complex functions through the command line and see how they change.

The FindFit function has been improved, too. You can now define a range of data that the function should use to create a curve-fitting equation. You can also edit and plot graphics in real time, as the software applies a stream of data to your equations.

Mathematica 6 runs on Windows (including Vista 64 bit), Macintosh, Linux (32 bit and 64 bit), Solaris (64 bit), and HP-UX (64 bit). Prices start at $2495 for Windows, Mac, and Linux and run higher for other platforms.