This month, I'm going to take a look at what's on offer in the
way of mathematical packages and, in particular, those that provide
good graphing and analysis features. MathGrapher (www.mathgrapher.com)
lets you draw and analyse functions and data in 2D and 3D, draw
surface graphs, contour plots and cross-sections through those
plots. The software also provides linear and non-linear curve fitting,
integration and analysis of coupled ordinary differential equations,
iteration and analysis of multi-dimensional maps, matrix operations,
Lindenmayer systems and cellular automata. The latest version (2.0)
offers new curve fitting options, statistical functions such as
Chi-squared and Kolmogorov tests, and more analytical tools for
ordinary differential equations and iterative maps.
Graphis graph plotting and data analysis software from Kylebank
Software (www.kylebank.com) has at its core the ability to create
curves from tabular data as well as mathematical expressions. Tabular
curves are created in Graphis by entering data manually into a
curve's table or by pasting it from another application such as
Excel. Graphis makes it easy to generate analytical curves. For
example, to plot sin(x), simply enter y = sin(x) in the curve definition
window. The curve definition need not be a single line. It can
consist of multiple lines consisting of constants, variables and
expressions defining components of an overall formula. Graphis
provides 2D and 3D plot types, which can be used individually or
combined to construct a wide range of graphs, from standard surface
plotting to complex 3D visualizations comprising analytical expressions,
tabular data, 3D objects, annotation, and image overlay.
Igor Pro (www.wavemetrics.com) is an interactive environment that
allows you to experiment with scientific and engineering data,
or create publication-quality graphs (in .eps format, for example)
and page layouts - so, very useful if you have a paper to present
at conference and want it to stand out from the rest! Igor Pro
is a programmable environment, so you can extend it if you need
to, by writing external C code. However, this is not a necessity,
as most functionality is readily available from standard menus
and dialog boxes. Other features include special support for time
series data, the ability to import data in many formats (including
data from hardware devices) and a powerful suite of image processing
operations for image filtering, manipulation and quantification.
DADisp (www.dadisp.com) offers a 'worksheet' approach to interactive
graphical analysis: essentially it is a visual type of environment
for displaying and analysing your scientific or engineering design
data. A nice feature is its ability to display results in multiple
windows on one screen, allowing simultaneous graphic comparisons
to be made. Each window can contain either raw data or data transformed
by one of DADisp's numerous analysis functions, in the form of
graphs or tables. The data and graphs in each window can be related
via formulae to those in other windows, so you can define your
own analysis chain without having to resort to programming. When
new data is loaded into the raw data windows, dependent windows
are automatically re-calculated and updated.
Universal Technical Systems' (www.uts.com) TK Solver (currently
in version 5.0) is claimed to be faster than traditional methods,
thanks to its novel rule-based, declarative method of setting up
a problem. This compares favourably with more traditional programming
and analysis environments that use a procedural approach requiring
a precise sequence of instructions where known and unknown variables
are sorted out ahead of time. With TK Solver you don't need to
decide what variables will be inputs and which outputs when you
create your mathematical model. Moreover, it also allows you to
guess values in order to 'back-solve', making it a very useful
tool for testing those 'what-if' type engineering analyses.
Then there's FlexPro (flexpro.adeptscience.co.uk) which has just
been released in a new version 7. This uses an object-oriented
environment to view, manipulate and analyse data. Tabbed windows
within an Explorer-type interface are designed to help you keep
track of multiple data views, and objects can be dragged and dropped
between windows. A properties window lets you modify graph attributes.
FlexPro can handle a very wide range of binary file formats, so
it's a good choice if you need to need to graph and analyse data
direct from measurement instruments, from data acquisition software
such as LabVIEW or DASYLab, or from number-crunching packages like
MATLAB or SPSS.
Dr Know's recommended download is FlexPro 7: 30-Day Evaluation - download yours today.