What is FriCAS?
FriCAS (formerly Axiom) is a general purpose computer algebra system with a focus on symbolic computation. It has powerful capabilities for working with mathematical expressions and can perform calculus, number theory, algebra, integral transforms, special functions, and more.
Some key features of FriCAS include:
- A rich language for defining mathematical objects like groups, rings, fields, vector spaces etc.
- Advanced symbolic manipulation and simplification of expressions
- Arbitrary precision numeric computations
- 2D and 3D plotting capabilities
- A large library of mathematical functions and algorithms
- Interfaces to other languages like C, Python, Maple, Mathematica
FriCAS is open source software written in SPAD and available for Linux, MacOS and Windows. It has an extensive standard library and active community support. The syntax is different than some commercial CAS systems but quite powerful once learned.
If you need to do heavy symbolic math, number crunching, exploration of mathematical constructs or algorithm development, FriCAS is an excellent free alternative to consider.
PTC Mathcad, Mathematica, MATLAB, Maple, Scilab, GNU Octave, R (programming language), Maxima, SageMath, wxMaxima, SymPy are some alternatives to FriCAS.