This in-place computation provides a very powerful way to manipulate expressions. Definitions can be saved with a document and restored when it is opened. About the Model Scientific WorkPlace 's basic computational model is directed toward easy, direct access. In this regard, it is closest to Maple and Mathematica. Programming capabilities provide a way of automating the basic model, and are only loosely related to document structure.
Programming is structural as it is in spreadsheets.
In Mathcad, for example, a form of programming is achieved by linking the output of a computation in one region to the input of a computation in another. Features of the Interface Understanding Mathematics Because free-form natural mathematics entry reduces the burden on the user significantly, there is a corresponding increase in the work required by the program to understand what the user enters. For example, the variable of integration in an expression like is never distinguished other than by the preceding letter d , yet we understand the expression instantly. Our design goal was to use natural notation exclusively, never asking the user to supply more information. Natural notation is often ambiguous, with ambiguities that must be resolved differently depending on the elements of an expression.