3-D graphing software?

[Dotan Cohen]

On 20/11/2007, Dean S. Messing <deanm at sharplabs.com> wrote:
>
> Dotan Cohen wrote:
> : In an advanced Calculus course, we are dealing with functions with 2
> : (and more) variables. Is there any 3-D graphing software for Fedora
> : available? Something like Kalgebra, but with a bit more functions such
> : as multiple functions graphed at the same time, asymptote min max and
> : other significant points, zoom into 3-D graph, graph of derivative and
> : integral, etc. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
>
> I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned the excellent Scilab
> system. It is put out by INRIA in France (similar to Sandia or Los
> Alamos Nat'l Labs here in the States.) It is FOSS software.
>
> Like Octave, it is a very high level "rapid prototyping" language.  By
> "high level" I mean that with great ease one can do a lot of
> mathematical computation.
>
> As a simple example, to solve a system of equations,  M*x = b,
> where M is the matrix of coefficients, one merely writes
>
> x = M\b;
>
> You may recognise this as Matlab code. Scilab is meant to be nearly
> identical to Matlab except for the plotting commands. It runs on
> both Window and Linux.
>
> Plotting facilities are good.  You can plot multiple 3D graphs and
> then individually rotate them in 3D with your mouse or from the
> command-line.  If you are an Emacs user like me, then you will enjoy
> using the Emacs Scilab mode instead of the native Scilab command
> window.  The plotting facilities allow you do almost anything with
> regard to axis labeling, scaling, view angles.
>
> Scilab (like Matlab) has several "toolboxes" which people have written
> for special purposes.  The one I use extensively in my research in SIP
> (Scilab Image Processing).
>
> Scilab is not symbolic so you won't be able to compute symbolic
> derivatives, but it can do numerical differentiation which can
> then be plotted.
>
> There is a USENET news support group and several people on it are
> experts who have written texts on Scilab so help is available when you
> have questions.
>
> Go to <http://www.scilab.org/> for more information.
>
> Dean

Thanks, I'll look into Scilab. I'm beginning to realize that I may
need one of these 'programming languages' solutions instead of a GUI
program such as Kalgebra.

Dotan Cohen

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