Mathematica

Mathematica , produced by Wolfram Research, is a powerful system for carrying out a wide variety of mathematics. Formulae can be entered in two ways, either as a command-string, or through a template based equation editor. The template based editor is discussed later in Section .

Mathematica's command string based entry shares the same problem as L^ATEX: the user has to know the correct ``command'' for each mathematical operation and symbol. As Mathematica offers an interactive session, online help is available which helps to alleviate this problem.

The example formula is entered for evaluation into Mathematica with the command string:

Integrate[(4x^3/Log[x]),{x,10,20}]

The language used by Mathematica is simpler and more consistent than that used by L^ATEX. Functions have their names fully spelt out, their arguments are contained within a single pair of square brackets and each argument is separated by a comma. L^ATEX often uses shortened command names, has pairs of curly braces around each argument and the number of these pairs varies depending on the operation. The variety of brackets used in Mathematica's expression tends to make them more readable and easier to understand. This difference is probably due to the fact that L^ATEX's primary purpose is typesetting, while Mathematica is a mathematics package.