The chain of input and output is reminiscent of Lisp, an artificial intelligence language that flourished briefly in the mid-1980s. The abilities to evaluate, simplify and expand these expressions are lifesavers. For those who remember slogging through calculus, the ease with which this program returns a symbolic expression of a complex integral is astonishing. Graphic capabilities are impressive, and sounds can be associated with output as well. Mathematica even offers animation, which allows users to see, for example, how a financial position might evolve.
Palettes are another useful feature.
These visual calls to the kernel allow formatting of input and output and automate tasks such as evaluating complex expressions and generating mathematical notations. The software handles all the functions we have come to expect from a higher-order programming language, such as strings and text, Boolean logic, arrays and matrices, capabilities for data analysis, linear algebra, and statistical analysis. Also, once the program's kernel is running, the functions can be called from external programs, which can save quite a bit of code-writing time. HTML files can be generated for Web pages. Despite these capabilities, deficiencies remain.