3D-XplorMath-J.app for Mac

From 3DXM Consortium:

Announcing the Release of 3D-XplorMath-J, Version 1.0 February 5, 2008 The 3DXM Consortium is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Version 1.0 of 3D-XplorMath-J. 3D-XplorMath-J has a homepage at: http://3d-xplormath.org/j/ and much of the information below can also be found there. 3D-XplorMath-J is a mathematical visualization application, i.e., a computer program for "seeing" and experimenting with a wide variety of mathematical objects or "exhibits." A good way to conceptualize the program is as a Virtual Mathematical Museum---that is an implementation in software of the collections of physical models of surfaces, polyhedra, etc., that can still be seen in display cases of many mathematical institutes. However, because of its virtual nature it ispossible for it to contain "Galleries" of many more (and more abstract) kinds of visualisable mathematical objects, such as Fractals, Dynamical Systems, Waves, Conformal Maps, etc. 3D-XplorMath-J is written in the Java programming language, and to use it you should have Java 5.0 or higher installed on your computer. It is a complete revision of an older Pascal program, 3D-XplorMath, that runs only on Macintosh computers. While it still lacks some features and exhibits of the Pascal program, 3D-XplorMath-J, Version 1.0 is ready for serious use and has unique features of its own. In particular, the Java version has numerous improvements both in the user interface and in the way that exhibits are presented. Considerable thought and effort has gone into making 3D-XplorMath-J easy and intuitive to use. After a Gallery is chosen and an Exhibit is selected from that Gallery (both by using menus) the program immediately presents a carefully constructed default view of the exhibit, after which the user can alter that view by dragging with the mouse or making various other choices from menus an dialogs. For a quick introduction to using the program, select the first item in the Documentation menu, "Getting Started with 3D-XplorMath-J". Each Gallery is documented in a so-called About This Gallery file, available through the Documentation menu while the program is running, and eventually all Exhibits will likewise have an assoiated About This Exhibit file. 3D-XplorMath-J is available in multiple languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Chinese. On a computer that is set up to use one of the supported languages, the program should automatically run in that language. (Note, however, that the translation is as yet incomplete for some languages, and parts of the program and documentation may be in English.) 3D-XplorMath-J is available in versions for Windows and for Mac OS, as well as as a "jar" file that works on all platforms. Note that all versions require Java 5.0 or higher. Use these links to download the program: 3D-XplorMath-J.exe (Windows) http://3d-xplormath.org/j/3D-XplorMath-J.exe 3D-XplorMath-J.dmg (Mac OS) http://3d-xplormath.org/j/3D-XplorMath-J.dmg 3D-XplorMath-J.jar (any platform) http://3d-xplormath.org/j/3D-XplorMath-J.jar Concerning the "jar" file: On most computers, this version of the program can be run just by double-clicking it. It can also be run on the command line with the command java -jar 3D-XplorMath-J.jar In fact, 3D-XplorMath-J works best if it has access to more memory than is usually given to Java applications, so it is best to run the jar file on the command line with a command that asks for extra memory, such as java -jar -Xmx256m 3D-XplorMath-J.jar (The Windows and Mac OS versions automatically request extra memory.) If your web browser is Java 5.0 enabled (as most up-to-date ones are these days) then the individual exhibits of 3D-XplorMath-J can be used on-line in the form of "Java applets." A link to the applets can be found on the program's home page. 3D-XplorMath-J is a free and open-source program and its source code is released under a BSD license. To browse the source code online, go to: http://3d-xplormath.org/j/source/ and to dowload all of it, use: http://3d-xplormath.org/j/source/3D-XplorMath-J-source.zip For developers, the Java API documentation can be found (in English only) at: http://3d-xplormath.org/j/javadoc/ 3D-XplorMath-J is a project of the 3DXM Consortium, an international volunteer group of mathematicians supported in part by The National Science Foundation (DUE Award #0514781).