Scientific WorkPlace (often abbreviated to SWP) is a
software package for
scientific
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
word processing
A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no conse ...
on
Microsoft Windows and OS X.
Although advertised as a
WYSIWYG
In computing, WYSIWYG ( ), an acronym for What You See Is What You Get, is a system in which editing software allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed d ...
LaTeX
Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well.
In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...
-based
word processor
A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features.
Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicated to the function, but current ...
, it is actually a
graphical user interface
The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inst ...
for editing LaTeX source files with the same ease-of-use of a word processor, while maintaining a screen view that resembles but is not identical to the eventual output that LaTeX produces.
For instance, its display shows text wrapped to the width of the screen rather than to the eventual page width, and colored equations rather than the black-and-white rendering that LaTeX would normally produce.
[.] It also includes an integrated
computer algebra system
A computer algebra system (CAS) or symbolic algebra system (SAS) is any mathematical software with the ability to manipulate mathematical expressions in a way similar to the traditional manual computations of mathematicians and scientists. The d ...
.
[.]
Because Scientific WorkPlace is based on LaTeX, it can be used to produce files in the house style of any scientific journal that also uses LaTeX,
and the software makes it easy to change the overall style of a document in a single operation.
It comes with many predefined styles, but installing a new style can be somewhat complicated.
The developer of Scientific WorkPlace, MacKichan Software, Inc., announced on June 30, 2021 that it had ceased business and would no longer sell licenses to its software.
Existing licenses would remain valid, but new installs would need to be verified by its licensing server, which it expected to maintain for at least two years. It also announced that Scientific WorkPlace could not be made open source as the software relied on the computer algebra system
MuPAD
MuPAD is a computer algebra system (CAS). Originally developed by the MuPAD research group at the University of Paderborn, Germany, development was taken over by the company SciFace Software GmbH & Co. KG in cooperation with the MuPAD research gro ...
, a closed-source product. Scientific Word 6.1 (the version without MuPAD) was made freely available for Windows and its source code will be posted to
Github
GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continu ...
.
See also
*
LyX
LyX (styled as ; pronounced ) (Based on 3 developers, they say it can be pronounced "Licks", "Lucks" and "Leeks") is an open source, graphical user interface document processor based on the LaTeX typesetting system. Unlike most word processors, ...
– An
open-source cross-platform alternative with similar functionality
*
TeXmacs
GNU TeXmacs is a scientific word processor and typesetting component of the GNU Project. It originated as GNU Emacs with TeX functionalities, though it shares no code with those programs, while using TeX fonts. It is written and maintained by J ...
– An open-source cross-platform scientific word processor and typesetting system
*
wxMaxima – An open-source cross-platform
CAS that can be used with LyX
*
Comparison of TeX editors
The following is a comparison of TeX editors.
Table of editors
See also
* Formula editor
* Comparison of word processors
* Comparison of text editors
* Comparison of desktop publishing software
* List of TeX extensions
Notes and refere ...
References
External links
*
{{Word processors
Text editors
TeX editors