PAST - PAlaeontological STatistics Alternatives

MATLAB

MATLAB is a numerical computing environment and programming language. Maintained by The MathWorks, MATLAB allows easy matrix manipulation, plotting of functions and data, implementation of algorithms, creation of user interfaces, and interfacing with programs in other languages. Although it is numeric only, an optional toolbox uses the MuPAD symbolic engine, allowing access to computer algebra capabilities.

Features:

• File-sync
• Simulink
• Batch plotting
• Embedded debugger

R (programming language)

R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. It is a GNU project which is similar to the S language and environment which was developed at Bell Laboratories (formerly AT&T, now Lucent Technologies) by John Chambers and colleagues. R can be considered as a different implementation of S. There are some important differences, but much code written for S runs unaltered under R.

Features:

• Automatic data loading
• Data Mining

Mathematica

Definitive technical computing system spanning machine learning and neural networks, data science, visualizations and much more.

Features:

• Symbolic Computation
• Calculus solving
• Constructive geometry
• Equation solving
• Graphing calculator
• Algebra
• Graphical component

RStudio

RStudio™ is an integrated development environment (IDE) for R. RStudio combines an intuitive user interface with powerful coding tools to help you get the most out of R. RStudio brings together everything you need to be productive with R in a single, customizable environment. Its intuitive interface and powerful coding tools help you get work done faster. RStudio is available for all major platforms including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Features:

• Code completion
• Embedded debugger
• IDE
• Session management
• Syntax Highlighting

Maple

Maple is a general-purpose commercial computer algebra system. Users can enter mathematics in traditional mathematical notation. Custom user interfaces can also be created. There is support for numeric computations, to arbitrary precision, as well as symbolic computation and visualization. Examples of symbolic computations are given below. Maple incorporates a dynamically typed imperative-style programming language which resembles Pascal. The language permits variables of lexical scope.

Features:

• Graphing calculator
• Mechanical Simulation

PSPP

PSPP is a free software application for analysis of sampled data. It has a graphical user interface and conventional command line interface. It is written in C, uses GNU Scientific Library for its mathematical routines, and plotutils for generating graphs. It is intended as a free replacement of the proprietary program, SPSS.

Features:

• Network Analysis
• Graphs

SymPy

SymPy is a Python library for symbolic computation. The stated goals of the library are to become a full-featured computer algebra system and to keep a simple code base to promote extensibility and comprehensibility. SymPy is written entirely in Python and does not depend on any additional libraries. It is available both as a desktop application and on the web as SymPy Live.

Features:

• Algebra
• Education
• Equation editor
• Equation solving
• Python
• Simulation

SOFA Statistics

SOFA Statistics is an open-source statistical package, with an emphasis on ease of use, learn as you go, and beautiful output. The name stands for Statistics Open For All. It has a graphical user interface and can connect directly to MySQL, SQLite, MS Access, and MS SQL Server. Data can also be imported from CSV or MS Excel files.

Features:

• Gui
• Reporting

RKWard

RKWard is an easy to use, transparent frontend to the R programming language, a very powerful, yet hard-to-get-into scripting-language with a strong focus on statistic functions. RKWard tries to combine the power of the R-language with the ease of use of commercial statistical packages. Although it can run in numerous environments, it was designed for and integrates with the KDE desktop environment.

Xcos

Xcos is a graphical editor to design hybrid dynamical systems models. Models can be designed, loaded, saved, compiled and simulated. Features Palettes Browser All Xcos standard blocks grouped by categories (signal processing, electrical, hydraulics, derivative, integral, etc.). Editor To design flow charts representing a dynamic system made of blocks defined in palettes.