Mathematica

mathematics Visualization software

• In 2013 reframed as Wolfram Language

created by Stephen Wolfram

Mathematica is a Algebra and Symbolic Math-s package whereas matlab is predominately a numerical computation package (though you can get a symbolic toolkit for matlab which then gives it some of the features of a program like Maple or Mathematica). Generally speaking though you'd use Mat Lab if you want to be able to manipulate lots of numerical data easily and you'd use mathematica if you want an aid for symbolic mathematical manipulations. Engineers for example would mostly tend to find Matlab more useful than Mathematica, while it would normally be the other way around for a Mathematician. (See Chris Hillman comment in same page/thread.)

Open Source clones?

• Madeline - http://madeline.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/madeline not touched since 2003?

Open Source alternatives?

• Mathomatic http://mathomatic.orgserve.de/math/
• Beaker is a notebook-style development environment for working interactively with large and complex datasets. Its plugin-based architecture allows you to switch between languages (Python, R, Ruby, JavaScript, others) or add new ones with ease, ensuring that you always have the right tool for any of your analysis and visualization needs.

Python alternatives?

• Sim Py? http://sympy.org/
  • MathIcs is a free, general-purpose online computer algebra system featuring Mathematica-compatible syntax and functions. It is backed by highly extensible Python code, relying on SymPy for most mathematical tasks.
• Python Ica http://www.strout.net/python/pythonica.html
• SAGE http://sagemath.org/
• comparing source code between Mathematica, Mat Lab, and Python (using PyNumeric, PyLab, and SciPy).
• IPython NoteBook-s 2012-10-17-IpythonNotebooks