Software tools

On this page, you will find a list of useful publicly available software tools, for data analysis, graphical display, etc.

Emulation, file management

• XQuartz X-window system for Mac
• PuTTY Telnet/SSH client for Windows and Unix
• Fugu Secure File Transfer for Mac

Numerical tools and libraries

• Numerical Recipes
• Octave, a free alternative to Matlab
• Python, a programming language
  • Canopy Scientific and Analytic Python Deployment with Integrated Analysis Environment

Mathematical tools

• Mathics, a free alternative to Mathematica
• SymPy, symbolic calculus using Python
• Abramowitz and Stegun: Handbook of Mathematical Functions

Graphical tools

• GNUplot, also see gnuplotting.org, for producing graphs from data
• GIMP, graphics editor
• ImageJ, graphics editor and image analysis
• InkScape, vector graphics editor

Text editing tools

• LaTeX
  • TeXShop, complete LaTeX + BibTeX package for Mac
  • BibDesk, bibliography manager for Mac
  • LaTeXiT, compiles LaTeX formulas for presentations for Mac
• Emacs, powerful plain text editor
• TextWrangler, powerful plain text editor for Mac
• LibreOffice, office suite of programs

See also

• Digital tools for researchers