Then we have Maple which was at version 11 back in 2007 and is now at version 13.īefore anyone states the obvious, yes I know version numbers on their own mean very little but the increase in functionality in Mathcad’s competitors over the last 2 years or so has been substantial whereas Mathcad itself has gone nowhere. In the same time MATLAB has seen 5 major new releases going from 2006b to 2009a and Mathematica has been improved beyond recognition in the transformation from version 5.2 to 7.01. Version 14 was released on 12th February 2007 and since then its competitors have gone from strength to strength. PTC’s Mathcad hasn’t seen a major new release in over 2 years.
Just recently I have found myself wondering if the product is doomed. So, read the following in the knowledge that the writer is heavily biased.
Most of the things I choose to write about Mathcad concern its bugs. Professionally I have had a lot of grief with it and personally I cannot see why anyone who can also choose from Mathematica, MATLAB and Maple (and I am lucky enough to be in this position) would ever bother with it. I’ll start off this post by mentioning that I don’t like PTC’s Mathcad very much and think that is a very weak product compared to its competitors.
