What's New at What Runs Where
This spring has seen the arrival of important new revisions of Maple and
FrameMaker, as well as some new-to-Athena software packages, and all of these are described at the What Runs Where web site. More updates, including a major Matlab upgrade, are on the way this summer. Among the latest arrivals are two language applications and two graphics applications. (All applications are available for both Sun and Linux platforms unless otherwise noted.)
Maple 9.5
Version 9.5 of Maple, released mid-April, includes a host of new features.
Of particular interest to the MIT community are:
- Integrated algorithms for optimization problems.
- Solvers for differential-algebraic equation systems for advanced modelingapplications.
- Major performance improvements.
- User interface improvements that make complex operations intuitive and
quick
Refer to the
href="http://web.mit.edu/acs/www/numerical.html#maple" target="new">What Runs Where (WRW) Maple entry
for more details.
FrameMaker 7.1 (Sun only)
FrameMaker is a structured document publishing system, frequently
used for publishing
theses. Version 7.1 has added a number of new capabilities:
- Improved set of tools for XML authoring and publishing.
- Support for placing graphics in PDF format into FrameMaker
documents.
- Rendering of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) as vector-based graphics
in print and PDF files.
- Acrobat Distiller 6 technology.
Refer to the
href="http://web.mit.edu/acs/www/text.html#FrameMaker" target="new">WRW FrameMaker entry
for more information.
Programming Language Packages
- SWI Prolog is an ISO
compatible compiler for the
Prolog language which has various enhancements including a C++
interface, execution
profiler
and development environment
for GUI applications. The Prolog compiler works with a related
graphics toolkit XPCE, an object-oriented GUI system. SWI Prolog is both
free and small.
For more information, see the
href="http://web.mit.edu/acs/www/languages.html#SWI" target="new">WRW SWI Prolog entry.
- Glasgow Haskell Compiler is a full implementation of
Haskell, written in Haskell, which is a functional programming language.
The compiler
produces fast code, but is itself quite slow and needs a great deal
of memory. This installation fills a need for this type of language, which
has been
lacking on Athena. See the
href="http://web.mit.edu/acs/www/languages.html#ghc" target="new">Glasgow Haskell Compiler entry for more information.
Graphics
- inkscape is an open source, scalable vector
graphics editor. Similar
to Adobe Illustrator in capability, it aims to
provide a fully
XML, SVG, and CSS2 compliant
SVG drawing tool. See the
href="http://web.mit.edu/acs/www/graphics#inkscape" target="new">WRW inkscape entry for more information.
- Ipe is a freely downloadable drawing editor
for creating figures in PDF
or encapsulated Postscript format. It supports incorporating
text and figures into LaTeX documents
and has its own native xml format. For more information see the
href="http://web.mit.edu/acs/www/graphics#ipe" target="new">WRW Ipe entry.
For recent additions and a complete list of applications available
on Athena,
visit the
href="http://web.mit.edu/acs/www/whereruns.html" target="new">What
Runs Where web site.
