Summary of New Features in 8

A list of key new features since 7.

Core Language

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Integration of Wolfram|Alpha into the Wolfram System

type anywhere in an input cell, type natural language into the box, and get back the corresponding Wolfram System 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|Alpha

WolframAlpha programmatically query Wolfram|Alpha and give the results in the Wolfram System

New Compiler Enhancements »

CompilationTarget specify the target runtime for the compiled function, including C code

Parallelization specify whether a compiled function should run in parallel

The Wolfram System Compiler User Guide a tutorial on how to use the compiler effectively

Dynamic Library Linking »

LibraryFunctionLoad load a function from a dynamic library into the Wolfram Language

LibraryFunction a function that calls into a dynamic library

LibraryFunctionInformation  ▪  LibraryUnload  ▪  FindLibrary  ▪  ...

Wolfram LibraryLink User Guide a tutorial on using dynamic libraries in the Wolfram Language

Generate C from Wolfram Language Programs »

Export export a Wolfram System compiled function into C code

CCodeGenerate  ▪  CCodeStringGenerate  ▪  SymbolicCGenerate  ▪  LibraryGenerate  ▪  ...

C Code Generation User Guide a tutorial on generating C code from Wolfram System compiled functions

Symbolic Representation of C Code »

ToCCodeString convert a symbolic C expression into a string of C code

CAssign  ▪  CCall  ▪  CDefine  ▪  CFor  ▪  CFunction  ▪  CIf  ▪  CStruct  ▪  ...

SymbolicC User Guide a tutorial on creating, manipulating, and optimizing C code from within the Wolfram Language

Call C Compilers from the Wolfram System »

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 the Wolfram Language

GPU Computing Using CUDALink »

CUDAInformation enumerate all CUDA device information

CUDAFunctionLoad load user-defined CUDA programs into the Wolfram Language

CUDAErosion  ▪  CUDADilation  ▪  CUDAFourier  ▪  CUDADot  ▪  ...

GPU Computing Using OpenCLLink »

OpenCLInformation enumerate all OpenCL device information

OpenCLFunctionLoad load user-defined OpenCL programs into the Wolfram Language

OpenCLMemoryLoad  ▪  OpenCLMemoryAllocate  ▪  SymbolicOpenCLFunction  ▪  ...

Assertion Checking

Assert  ▪  $AssertFunction

Mathematics and Algorithms

Graphs & Networks »

Graph construct a graph from vertices and edges

GraphData, ExampleData collection of theoretical and empirical graphs

CompleteGraph  ▪  GridGraph  ▪  CompleteKaryTree  ▪  ButterflyGraph

AdjacencyGraph  ▪  IncidenceGraph  ▪  AdjacencyMatrix  ▪  ...

UniformGraphDistribution  ▪  BarabasiAlbertGraphDistribution  ▪  ...

New in Styling and Labeling of Graphs »

HighlightGraph highlight vertices, edges, or whole subgraphs

VertexStyle  ▪  EdgeStyle  ▪  VertexLabels  ▪  EdgeLabels  ▪  ...

New Predicates and Properties »

IsomorphicGraphQ test whether two graphs are isomorphic

GraphQ  ▪  DirectedGraphQ  ▪  ConnectedGraphQ  ▪  EulerianGraphQ  ▪  ...

New Graph Measures and Metrics »

VertexCount  ▪  VertexDegree  ▪  VertexInDegree  ▪  GraphDistance  ▪  ...

ClosenessCentrality  ▪  BetweennessCentrality  ▪  PageRankCentrality  ▪  ...

New Graph Computations »

FindShortestPath find the shortest path from the source to one or all vertices

FindEulerianCycle  ▪  FindHamiltonianCycle  ▪  GraphDiameter  ▪  ...

ConnectedComponents  ▪  KCoreComponents  ▪  VertexOutComponent  ▪  ...

FindClique  ▪  FindEdgeCover  ▪  BreadthFirstScan  ▪  ...

Control Systems »

TransferFunctionModel, StateSpaceModel models of linear time-invariant systems

ToContinuousTimeModel  ▪  ToDiscreteTimeModel  ▪  ...

RootLocusPlot plot the root loci

BodePlot magnitude and phase plots of the frequency response

NyquistPlot  ▪  NicholsPlot  ▪  ...

ControllableModelQ test whether a model is controllable

KalmanEstimator Kalman estimator with specified covariance matrices

OutputResponse  ▪  ControllabilityMatrix  ▪  SystemsModelExtract  ▪  LyapunovSolve  ▪  ...

Probability & Statistics »

Probability, NProbability compute probabilities for general events

Expectation, NExpectation compute expectations for general expressions

ProbabilityDistribution distribution constructed from a distribution function

RandomVariate  ▪  SurvivalFunction  ▪  HazardFunction  ▪  ...

Moment moments of distributions and data

Cumulant cumulants of distributions and data

MomentGeneratingFunction  ▪  MomentConvert  ▪  FactorialMoment  ▪  ...

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

LocationEquivalenceTest  ▪  VarianceEquivalenceTest  ▪  ...

New Statistical Distributions »

MultivariateTDistribution multivariate Student distribution

MultinormalDistribution  ▪  BinormalDistribution  ▪  MultivariatePoissonDistribution  ▪  ...

HistogramDistribution distribution constructed from a histogram of data

SmoothKernelDistribution distribution constructed from smoothing of data

EmpiricalDistribution  ▪  SurvivalDistribution  ▪  KernelMixtureDistribution  ▪  ...

DagumDistribution  ▪  SinghMaddalaDistribution  ▪  BetaPrimeDistribution  ▪  ...

ExponentialPowerDistribution  ▪  SechDistribution  ▪  NakagamiDistribution  ▪  ...

TransformedDistribution  ▪  OrderDistribution  ▪  MixtureDistribution  ▪  CopulaDistribution  ▪  ...

Permutations »

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

PermutationProduct  ▪  PermutationPower  ▪  PermutationOrder  ▪  ... operations with permutations

Group Theory »

PermutationGroup permutation representation of a finite group

GroupMultiplicationTable  ▪  CayleyGraph alternative representations of a group

GroupOrder  ▪  GroupElements  ▪  GroupElementQ  ▪  ... elements of a group

GroupOrbits  ▪  GroupStabilizer  ▪  ... operations with groups

SymmetricGroup  ▪  DihedralGroup  ▪  ... named 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

Statistical Visualization »

SmoothHistogram plot a density estimate of data

SmoothHistogram3D  ▪  PairedBarChart  ▪  PairedHistogram  ▪  DensityHistogram  ▪  SmoothDensityHistogram  ▪  ...

QuantilePlot quantile-quantile plot of data or distributions

ProbabilityPlot probability-probability plot of data or distributions

ProbabilityScalePlot normal plot, Weibull plot, Gumbel plot, etc.

BoxWhiskerChart  ▪  DistributionChart  ▪  ...

Financial Visualization »

TradingChart complete trading chart, possibly including technical indicators

InteractiveTradingChart interactive trading chart

CandlestickChart  ▪  KagiChart  ▪  RenkoChart  ▪  ...

Wavelet Visualization »

WaveletListPlot plot wavelet transform coefficients

WaveletMatrixPlot  ▪  WaveletImagePlot  ▪  WaveletScalogram  ▪  ...

Improved Interactive Graphics Editing

Graphics Drawing Tools draw and edit graphics interactively

New Application Technologies

Wavelet Analysis »

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

WaveletPhi  ▪  WaveletPsi  ▪  BattleLemarieWavelet  ▪  BiorthogonalSplineWavelet  ▪  MorletWavelet  ▪  PaulWavelet  ▪  ...

WaveletListPlot plot wavelet transform coefficients

WaveletMatrixPlot  ▪  WaveletImagePlot  ▪  WaveletScalogram  ▪  ...

Computational Finance »

FinancialDerivative get the pricing of financial derivatives

FinancialIndicator symbolic representation of technical indicators

TimeValue time value of money computations

EffectiveInterest effective interest rate conversions

Cashflow  ▪  Annuity  ▪  AnnuityDue  ▪  FinancialBond  ▪  ...

Financial Visualization »

TradingChart complete trading chart, possibly including technical indicators

InteractiveTradingChart interactive trading chart

CandlestickChart candlestick and OHLC chart of open-high-low-close prices

KagiChart  ▪  RenkoChart  ▪  PointFigureChart  ▪  LineBreakChart  ▪  ...

Image Processing Enhancements »

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

ImageDeconvolve  ▪  ContourDetect  ▪  CrossingDetect  ▪  SkeletonTransform  ▪  PrincipalComponents  ▪  ...

MeanShiftFilter  ▪  RangeFilter  ▪  TotalVariationFilter  ▪  WienerFilter  ▪  ...

WatershedComponents watershed transform of an image

ComponentMeasurements shape and color analysis

FillingTransform  ▪  MorphologicalBinarize  ▪  ImageForestingComponents  ▪  ...

New Import/Export Formats »

"GraphML" graph format

"KML" Google Earth GIS format

"QuickTime" Export can export to the QuickTime video format

"EPS" Import now supports the Encapsulated PostScript format

"XLSX"  ▪  "Affymetrix"  ▪  "JSON"  ▪  "C"  ▪  "NEXUS"  ▪  "VideoFrames"  ▪  ...

Notebook and Document Enhancements

Computable Document Format (CDF) Files

File New FreeCDF (.cdf) create a new .cdf file

File Save As... added support for saving .cdf files

"CDF" added Import and Export of Computable Document Format (.cdf) files

Printing and Layout Improvements

File Printing Settings Headers and Footers new "Headers and Footers" dialog includes support for self-indexing running heads and adds many ease-of-use additions

File Print Preview new "Print Preview" capability on Windows and Linux platforms

Improved line and page breaking and paging control

New Citation Management

Insert Citation integration with both EndNote and BibTeX citation styles

Citation Management a tutorial on managing citations in the Wolfram System

Improved Find & Replace Dialog

Edit Find 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

New Compiler Enhancements »

CompilationTarget specifies the target runtime for the compiled function including C code

Parallelization specifies whether a compiled function should run in parallel

The Wolfram System Compiler User Guide a tutorial on how to use the compiler effectively

Dynamic Library Linking »

LibraryFunctionLoad load a function from a dynamic library into the Wolfram System

LibraryFunction a function that calls into a dynamic library

LibraryFunctionInformation  ▪  LibraryUnload  ▪  FindLibrary  ▪  ...

LibraryLink User Guide a tutorial on using dynamic libraries in the Wolfram System

Generate C from Wolfram Language Programs »

Export export a Wolfram System compiled function into C code

CCodeGenerate  ▪  CCodeStringGenerate  ▪  SymbolicCGenerate  ▪  LibraryGenerate  ▪  ...

C Code Generation User Guide a tutorial on generating C code from Wolfram System compiled functions

Symbolic Representation of C Code »

ToCCodeString convert a symbolic C expression into a string of C code

CAssign  ▪  CCall  ▪  CDefine  ▪  CFor  ▪  CFunction  ▪  CIf  ▪  CStruct  ▪  ...

SymbolicC User Guide a tutorial on creating, manipulating, and optimizing C code from within the Wolfram System

Call C Compilers from the Wolfram System »

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 the Wolfram System

GPU Computing Using CUDALink »

CUDAInformation enumerates all CUDA device information

CUDAImageConvolve convolves images with a specified kernel

CUDAFunctionLoad loads user-defined CUDA programs into the Wolfram Language

NVCCCompiler compiles CUDA programs in the Wolfram Language

CUDAErosion  ▪  CUDADilation  ▪  CUDAFourier  ▪  CUDADot  ▪  ...

CUDAMemoryLoad  ▪  CUDAMemoryAllocate  ▪  SymbolicCUDAFunction  ▪  ...

GPU Computing Using OpenCLLink »

OpenCLInformation enumerates all OpenCL device information

OpenCLFunctionLoad loads user-defined OpenCL programs into the Wolfram Language

OpenCLMemoryLoad  ▪  OpenCLMemoryAllocate  ▪  SymbolicOpenCLFunction  ▪  ...

Standalone Wolfram Language Scripts

-script execute commands from a file in a script mode

MathematicaScript execute a standalone Wolfram Language script

$ScriptCommandLine arguments given to the Wolfram Language script