Title:	Scientific Workplace 3.0
Made by:	MacKichan Software, Inc.
Platform:	Windows 95/98/NT and MacOS
Category:	Tools: Scientific Word Processing
Price:	Free 30 day demo; $199 students, $595 professional
Ordering Info:	Click here to order
Description:
Scientific Workplace (SW) is a very useful program for scientific typesetting. It basically consists of a graphical interface to TeX - the powerful text compiler by Donald Knuth. That means that one can type documents (as simple as a letter or a fax or as complex as a research paper, a Ph.D. thesis or a book) in a familiar 'word processor' environment by taking advantage of pop-up menus and icons for various symbols and macros. INTERFACE While you're typing, what you see is almost what you get; in fact, when you save your document SW generates the LaTeX code for it. By simply clicking on a button, SW invokes the TeX compiler, which processes the document, and opens a viewer for you to check out the final result. To fully appreciate the usefulness of SW, let's make an example: suppose you would like to have the basic Gaussian integral in your document: The LaTeX code for it is: $$ \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} dx \em e^{-x^2} \em = \em \sqrt{\pi} $$ With SW you just click on the integral icon, click on the lower limit, enter -, click on the symbol, click on the upper limit ... got it? Also importing pictures becomes as simple: click on the Import Picture command and select the file in virtually any format (.ai, .bmp, .cdr, .clp, .dxf, .eps, .gif, .ico, .jpg, .pcd, .pcx, .ppm, .ps, .ras, .cgi, .tif, .wmf, .xpm and many others). You get the LaTeX code for your document without having to learn and type in the actual LaTeX commands for it. This saves a considerable amount of time and reduces syntax errors during compilation. By choosing the Portable option when saving, the .tex file you get is 100% compatible with every TeX compiler; this means that you can type a document with SW and compile, preview and print it out on your Unix workstation or any other computer, independently of the operating system. MATH ENGINE The Scientific Workplace comes with a nice interface to Maple - a program for doing calculations, plotting etc. Let's go back to the above example of the Gaussian integral. If you don't remember to what it evaluates just type it in the SW, go to the Maple menu, click on Evaluate and there you get: (SW even puts an equal sign for you). Needless to say that with this interface you can plot functions in 2D or 3D, import plots into your documents, solve equations, manipulate matrices, etc. To make it even better, the producers of the Scientific Workplace have included several companion programs: a package for defining your own LaTeX style, a bibliography manager (to organize your references) and a document manager. CONCLUSION If you regularly create scientific documents, exams, research papers or books, Scientific Workplace will make your life easier. Its customizable menus for the most frequently used symbols, spell checker, interface to Maple and other useful and powerful features will make your scientific document creation a snap ... and your documents will have a very high, professional quality. Some future improvements could include the possibility of choosing between linking to Maple or to Mathematica as the engine for calculations, plotting etc. and the implementation of foreign languages, i.e. the possibility of typesetting in Russian for instance. Click here to download a fully functional 30 day demo version of this software.
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Reviewer: Francesco Siano, PhysLink.com editor.