MuPAD
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| MuPAD | |
| Developer: | SciFace Software GmbH & Co. KG, Paderborn, Germany |
|---|---|
| Latest release: | 4.0.1 / October 23, 2006 |
| OS: | Windows, Mac OS X, Linux |
| Use: | Computer algebra system |
| License: | Proprietary |
| Website: | www.mupad.com |
MuPAD is a Computer algebra system (CAS). Originally developed by the MuPAD research group at the University of Paderborn, it is developed since 1997 by the company SciFace Software GmbH & Co. KG in cooperation with the MuPAD research group and partners from some other universities.
Until autumn 2005 the version MuPAD Light was offered for free for research and education, but as consequence of closing the home institute of the MuPAD research group there is now only the version MuPAD Pro available with costs.
The MuPAD kernel is bundled with Scientific Notebook. Former versions of MuPAD Pro were bundled with SciLab.
[edit] Functionality
MuPAD offers
- a Computer algebra system to manipulate formulas symbolically
- program packages for linear algebra, differential equations, number theory, statistics, functional programming
- an interactive graphic system that supports animations and transparent areas in 3D
- classic and verified numerical analysis in discretionary accuracy
- a programming language that supports object orientation and functional programming
Often used commands are accessible via menus. MuPAD offers a notebook concept similar to word processing systems that allows the formulation of mathematical problems as well as graphics visualization and explanations in formatted text. It is possible to extend MuPAD with C++ routines to accelerate calculations. Also Java-code can be embedded.
MuPAD's syntax is modeled on Pascal, and is similar to the one used in the Maple computer algebra system. The most important difference between the two is that MuPAD provides support for object-oriented programming. This means that each object "carries with itself" the methods allowed to use on it. For example, after defining
A := matrix( [[1,2],[3,4]] )
all of the following are valid expressions and give the expected result:
A+A, -A, 2*A, A*A, A^-1, exp( A ), A.A, A^0, 0*A
where A.A is the concatenated 2x4 matrix, while all others, including the last two, are again 2x2 matrices (in contrast to what would happen in most other computer algebra systems).
