{"id":4844,"date":"2013-03-04T22:10:49","date_gmt":"2013-03-04T21:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.walkingrandomly.com\/?p=4844"},"modified":"2013-03-04T22:10:49","modified_gmt":"2013-03-04T21:10:49","slug":"a-month-of-math-software-february-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/?p=4844","title":{"rendered":"A Month of Math Software &#8211; February 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to the latest Month of Math Software here at WalkingRandomly.\u00a0 If you have any mathematical software news or blogposts that you&#8217;d like to share with a larger audience, feel free to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.walkingrandomly.com\/?page_id=2055\">contact me<\/a>.\u00a0 Thanks to everyone who contributed news items this month, I couldn&#8217;t do it without you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The NAG Library for Java<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG) have been producing numerical libraries for over 40 years and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nag.co.uk\/nag-library-for-java\">now they have one for Java<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>MATLAB-a-likes<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Version 3.6.4 of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gnu.org\/software\/octave\/\">Octave<\/a>, the free, open-source MATLAB clone has been released. \u00a0This version contains some minor bug fixes. \u00a0To see everything that&#8217;s new since version 3.6, take a look at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gnu.org\/software\/octave\/NEWS-3.6.html\">NEWS file<\/a>.\u00a0 If you like MATLAB syntax but don&#8217;t like the price, Octave may well be for you.<\/li>\n<li>The frequently updated <a href=\"http:\/\/euler.rene-grothmann.de\/\">Euler Math Toolbox<\/a> is now at version 20.98 with a full list of changes <a href=\"http:\/\/euler.rene-grothmann.de\/Programs\/Changes.html\">in the log<\/a>.\u00a0 Scanning through the recent changes log, I came across the very nice <strong>iterate<\/strong>function which works as follows\n<pre>&gt;iterate(\"cos(x)\",1,100,till=\"abs(cos(x)-x)&lt;0.001\")\r\n\r\n[ 1  0.540302305868  0.857553215846  0.654289790498  0.793480358743\r\n0.701368773623  0.763959682901  0.722102425027  0.750417761764\r\n0.731404042423  0.744237354901  0.735604740436  0.74142508661\r\n0.737506890513  0.740147335568  0.738369204122  0.739567202212 ]<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Mathematical and Scientific Python<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Python based computer algebra system, SAGE, has been updated to version 5.7. \u00a0The full list of changes is at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sagemath.org\/mirror\/src\/changelogs\/sage-5.7.txt\">http:\/\/www.sagemath.org\/mirror\/src\/changelogs\/sage-5.7.txt<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Numpy is the fundamental Python package required for numerical computing with Python.\u00a0 Numpy is now at version 1.7 and you can see what&#8217;s new by taking a look at the <a href=\"http:\/\/sourceforge.net\/projects\/numpy\/files\/NumPy\/1.7.0\/\">release notes<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Spreadsheet news<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A new version of Microsoft Excel, the 800 pound gorilla of the spreadsheet world, was actually released back in January as part of Office 2013 but I managed to miss it somehow.\u00a0 An overview of what&#8217;s new in Excel 2013 is <a href=\"http:\/\/office.microsoft.com\/en-gb\/excel-help\/what-s-new-in-excel-2013-HA102809308.aspx\">available in a blog post from Microsoft<\/a>, along with a <a href=\"http:\/\/office.microsoft.com\/en-gb\/excel-help\/new-functions-in-excel-2013-HA103980604.aspx?CTT=5&amp;origin=HA102809308\">list of new functions in Excel 2013<\/a> and a note warning of the possibility of <a href=\"http:\/\/office.microsoft.com\/en-gb\/excel-help\/calculation-differences-between-pc-and-windows-rt-computers-HA103462984.aspx?CTT=5&amp;origin=HA103980604\">calculation differences between &#8216;normal&#8217; PCs and those running Windows RT<\/a>.\u00a0 More in-depth articles include <a href=\"http:\/\/peltiertech.com\/WordPress\/my-first-excel-2013-chart\/\">My first Excel 2013 chart<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pcpro.co.uk\/features\/377122\/excel-2013-in-depth\">Excel 2013 in depth<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.office.com\/b\/microsoft-excel\/archive\/2012\/12\/13\/introduction-to-powerpivot-in-excel-2013.aspx\">Introduction to PowerPivot in Excel 2013<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.contextures.com\/archives\/2013\/02\/05\/new-isformula-function-in-excel-2013\/\">new ISFORUMULA Function in 2013<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Hot on the heels of Microsoft&#8217;s product is a new version of the superb, <strong>completely free<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.libreoffice.org\/\">LibreOffice<\/a>.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.documentfoundation.org\/2013\/02\/07\/the-document-foundation-announces-libreoffice-4-0\/\">Version 4.0 was released<\/a> on 7 February 2013 and includes a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.libreoffice.org\/download\/4-0-new-features-and-fixes\">wide range of new features<\/a>.\u00a0 My favourite new feature, by far, is the inclusion of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.walkingrandomly.com\/?p=13\">Logo<\/a> interpreter!\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/extensions.libreoffice.org\/extension-center\/librelogo\">LibreLogo<\/a> is <em>&#8216;A Logo-Python programming environment with interactive turtle vector graphics for education and desktop publishing<\/em>&#8216;\u00a0 and there are some blog posts about it <a href=\"http:\/\/libreoffice.hu\/2012\/11\/29\/logo\/\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/libreoffice.hu\/2012\/12\/12\/logo-for-desktop-publishing\/\">here<\/a>.\u00a0 Another improvement I want to point out is the fact that the <a href=\"https:\/\/bugs.freedesktop.org\/show_bug.cgi?id=33365\">random number function in Libre Office Calc has been significantly improved<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>R and stuff<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A new version of R, the open source standard for statistical computing, has been released.\u00a0 Version 2.15.3 is probably going to be the last release before version 3 comes out.\u00a0 The full list of changes can be found at <a href=\"http:\/\/cran.r-project.org\/bin\/windows\/base\/NEWS.R-2.15.3.html\">http:\/\/cran.r-project.org\/bin\/windows\/base\/NEWS.R-2.15.3.html<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.rstudio.org\/2013\/02\/22\/shiny-0-4-0-now-available\/\">Version 0.4.0 of Shiny<\/a> has been released and the <a href=\"http:\/\/rstudio.github.com\/shiny\/tutorial\/\">Shiny tutorial<\/a> has been updated.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>This and that<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The commercial computer algebra system, Magma, has seen another incremental update in<a href=\"http:\/\/magma.maths.usyd.edu.au\/magma\/releasenotes\/2\/19\/3\/\"> version 2.19-3<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>The NCAR Command Language was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncl.ucar.edu\/current_release.shtml\">updated to version 6.1.2.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>IDL was updated to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.exelisvis.com\/ProductsServices\/IDL\/VersionUpdate.aspx\">version 8.2.2<\/a>.\u00a0 Since I&#8217;m currenty obsessed with random number generators, I&#8217;ll point out that in this release IDL finally moves away from an old Numerical Recipies generator and now uses the Mersenne Twister like almost everybody else.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>From the blogs<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The guys at AccelerEyes have been <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.accelereyes.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/21\/benchmarking-tesla-k20\/\">benchmarking NVIDIA&#8217;s new Tesla K20<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>NAG&#8217;s David Sayers asks\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.nag.com\/2013\/02\/nag-routines-in-different-precisions.html\">&#8216;Would you like the NAG Routines in Different Precisions?&#8217;<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Wolfram Research celebrates the <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.wolfram.com\/2013\/02\/04\/centennial-of-markov-chains\/\">Centennial of Markov Chains<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Stephen Wolfram asks <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.stephenwolfram.com\/2013\/02\/what-should-we-call-the-language-of-mathematica\/\">&#8216;What Should we call the language of Mathematica?&#8217;<\/a><\/li>\n<li>A couple of bloggers discuss performing Monte Carlo simulations using javascript (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.statisticsblog.com\/2013\/02\/statistical-computation-in-javascript-%E2%80%94-am-i-nuts\/\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/nullprogram.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/25\/\">here<\/a>).\u00a0 I say <a href=\"https:\/\/www.walkingrandomly.com\/?p=4855\">&#8216;Fine, but be careful because the Javascript random number generators are not too good&#8217; <\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to the latest Month of Math Software here at WalkingRandomly.\u00a0 If you have any mathematical software news or blogposts that you&#8217;d like to share with a larger audience, feel free to contact me.\u00a0 Thanks to everyone who contributed news items this month, I couldn&#8217;t do it without you. The NAG Library for Java The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-math-software","category-month-of-math-software"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3swhs-1g8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4844"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4866,"href":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4844\/revisions\/4866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}