Summary of New Features in
Mathematica 8
Integration of Wolfram|Alpha into
Mathematica
— type
Ctrl+= anywhere in an input cell, type natural language into the box, and get back the corresponding
Mathematica input
— type
= at the beginning of an input cell to get a single piece of data from Wolfram|Alpha
— type
== at the beginning of an input cell to get the full output from
Wolfram|AlphaWolframAlpha — programmatically query Wolfram|Alpha and give the results in
Mathematica
CompilationTarget — specify the target runtime for the compiled function, including C code
Parallelization — specify whether a compiled function should run in parallel
The Mathematica Compiler User Guide — a tutorial on how to use the compiler effectively
LibraryFunctionLoad — load a function from a dynamic library into
Mathematica
LibraryFunction — a function that calls into a dynamic library
Wolfram LibraryLink User Guide — a tutorial on using dynamic libraries in
Mathematica
Export — export a
Mathematica compiled function into C code
C Code Generation User Guide — a tutorial on generating C code from
Mathematica compiled functions
ToCCodeString — convert a symbolic C expression into a string of C code
SymbolicC User Guide — a tutorial on creating, manipulating, and optimizing C code from within
Mathematica
CreateExecutable — create an executable from C code
CreateLibrary — create a library from C code
CCompilerDriver User Guide — a tutorial on using available C compilers from within
Mathematica
CUDAInformation — enumerate all CUDA device information
CUDAFunctionLoad — load user-defined CUDA programs into
Mathematica
OpenCLInformation — enumerate all OpenCL device information
OpenCLFunctionLoad — load user-defined OpenCL programs into
Mathematica
RunScheduledTask — schedule and run a task to perform timed evaluations
Mathematics and Algorithms
Graph — construct a graph from vertices and edges
GraphData,
ExampleData — collection of theoretical and empirical graphs
HighlightGraph — highlight vertices, edges, or whole subgraphs
IsomorphicGraphQ — test whether two graphs are isomorphic
FindShortestPath — find the shortest path from the source to one or all vertices
TransferFunctionModel,
StateSpaceModel — models of linear time-invariant systems
RootLocusPlot — plot the root loci
BodePlot — magnitude and phase plots of the frequency response
ControllableModelQ — test whether a model is controllable
KalmanEstimator — Kalman estimator with specified covariance matrices
Probability,
NProbability — compute probabilities for general events
Expectation,
NExpectation — compute expectations for general expressions
ProbabilityDistribution — distribution constructed from a distribution function
Moment — moments of distributions and data
Cumulant — cumulants of distributions and data
DistributionFitTest — test for goodness of fit to a distribution or data
LocationTest — test means or mean differences of one or two datasets
VarianceTest — test variances or variance ratios of one or two datasets
MultivariateTDistribution — multivariate Student
distribution
HistogramDistribution — distribution constructed from a histogram of data
SmoothKernelDistribution — distribution constructed from smoothing of data
Cycles ▪ PermutationCyclesQ — cyclic representation of a permutation
RandomPermutation — randomly generated permutations
Permute ▪ FindPermutation — permute the parts of an expression
PermutationListQ ▪ PermutationList ▪ PermutationCycles — conversion between permutation lists and their cyclic form
PermutationSupport ▪ PermutationMax ▪ ... — points moved by a permutation
PermutationGroup — permutation representation of a finite group
GroupMultiplicationTable ▪ CayleyGraph — alternative representations of a group
GroupOrbits ▪ GroupStabilizer ▪ ... — operations with groups
Improvements to Equation Solving
Solve,
NSolve — new implementations, including solving over different domains
NIntegrate — new methods, particularly for univariate and multivariate oscillatory integrands
Visualization and Graphics
Texture — specify texture faces of polygons or other filled graphics objects
ScalingFunctions — specify which scaling functions should be used when plotting with
Plot,
Plot3D, and other plotting functions
SmoothHistogram — plot a density estimate of data
QuantilePlot — quantile-quantile plot of data or distributions
ProbabilityPlot — probability-probability plot of data or distributions
ProbabilityScalePlot — normal plot, Weibull plot, Gumbel plot, etc.
TradingChart — complete trading chart, possibly including technical indicators
InteractiveTradingChart — interactive trading chart
WaveletListPlot — plot wavelet transform coefficients
Improved Interactive Graphics Editing
— draw and edit graphics interactively
New Application Technologies
ContinuousWaveletTransform — give the continuous wavelet transform
DiscreteWaveletTransform — give the discrete wavelet transform
HaarWavelet — Haar wavelet family
DaubechiesWavelet — Daubechies wavelet family
MexicanHatWavelet — derivative of Gaussian wavelet family
GaborWavelet — Gabor wavelet family
WaveletListPlot — plot wavelet transform coefficients
FinancialDerivative — get the pricing of financial derivatives
FinancialIndicator — symbolic representation of technical indicators
TimeValue — time value of money computations
EffectiveInterest — effective interest rate conversions
TradingChart — complete trading chart, possibly including technical indicators
InteractiveTradingChart — interactive trading chart
CandlestickChart — candlestick and OHLC chart of open-high-low-close prices
ImageTransformation — pixelwise functional transformation of an image
EdgeDetect — detect edges in an image using Canny and other methods
RandomImage — generate a random image from a distribution
ImageCapture — capture an image from your computer's primary camera device
ImageKeypoints — find keypoints and associated feature vectors in an image
ImageCooccurrence — create a texture co-occurrence matrix
TextRecognize — extract text from an image
WatershedComponents — watershed transform of an image
ComponentMeasurements — shape and color analysis
"KML" — Google Earth GIS format
"QuickTime" — Export can export to the QuickTime video format
"EPS" — Import now supports the Encapsulated PostScript format
Notebook and Document Enhancements
Computable Document Format (CDF) Files
— added support for saving .cdf files
"CDF" — added
Import and
Export of Computable Document Format (.cdf) files
Printing and Layout Improvements
— new "Headers and Footers" dialog includes support for self-indexing running heads and adds many ease-of-use additions
— new "Print Preview" capability on Windows and Linux platforms
Improved line and page breaking and paging control
— integration with both EndNote and BibTeX citation styles
Citation Management — a tutorial on managing citations in
Mathematica
Improved Find & Replace Dialog
— includes finding and replacing of fully typeset text, enhanced highlighting of search results, and a history of previous searches and replacements
Automatic Evaluation of Notebooks
NotebookEvaluate — evaluate the cells in a specified notebook
Interface Controls Enhancements
InputField — now supports horizontal scrolling and content masking
MouseAppearance — context-sensitive mouse cursor appearance
Systems Interfaces & Deployment
CompilationTarget — specifies the target runtime for the compiled function including C code
Parallelization — specifies whether a compiled function should run in parallel
The Mathematica Compiler User Guide — a tutorial on how to use the compiler effectively
LibraryFunctionLoad — load a function from a dynamic library into
Mathematica
LibraryFunction — a function that calls into a dynamic library
LibraryLink User Guide — a tutorial on using dynamic libraries in
Mathematica
Export — export a
Mathematica compiled function into C code
C Code Generation User Guide — a tutorial on generating C code from
Mathematica compiled functions
ToCCodeString — convert a symbolic C expression into a string of C code
SymbolicC User Guide — a tutorial on creating, manipulating, and optimizing C code from within
Mathematica
CreateExecutable — create an executable from C code
CreateLibrary — create a library from C code
CCompilerDriver User Guide — a tutorial on using available C compilers from within
Mathematica
CUDAInformation — enumerates all CUDA device information
CUDAImageConvolve — convolves images with a specified kernel
CUDAFunctionLoad — loads user-defined CUDA programs into
Mathematica
NVCCCompiler — compiles CUDA programs in
Mathematica
OpenCLInformation — enumerates all OpenCL device information
OpenCLFunctionLoad — loads user-defined OpenCL programs into
Mathematica
Standalone
Mathematica Scripts
-script — execute commands from a file in a script mode
MathematicaScript — execute a standalone
Mathematica script
$ScriptCommandLine — arguments given to the
Mathematica script
