Mathematics Software

Abstract

In this chapter we describe open-source software for mathematics. We discuss Maxima, a general purpose symbolic math software system. GNU Octave which operates on matrices and can be used for signal processing functions. Statistical computing with R and PSPP is described, as well as number theory, group theory and graph isomorphism checking using PARI, and Nauty. The open-source math software Axiom, REDUCE, Singular, CoCoA, and Macaulay are discussed in their context of algebraic geometry and commutative algebra. The Polytope analysis software ‘polymake’ is shown, and with the help of examples, its use in calculating polytope properties is discussed. The TeXmacs front-end and editing platform is described as well. To end the chapter we present, Sage, which is a Python interface to many of the other software mentioned in this chapter. The Computational Geometry Algorithms Library (CGAL) is described for its use in solving computational geometry and discrete geometry problems.