[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] MrMage:
Hi guys,

Right now I am developing an iPhone/iPod touch version of PocketCAS in addition to PocketCAS for Windows Mobile! If you are interested in testing PocketCAS for iPhone for free, just send me a PM or contact me via the PocketCAS homepage! The final iPhone version will cost money, but I'll be giving it out to beta testers for free!

I have developed an interface to xcas, a free Computer Algebra System, for Windows Mobile.

Let's have a look at its features (text and screenshots have been taken from http://pocketcas.com, by appointment of ... myself):

Solving advanced mathematical problems made easy

PocketCAS is a free interface to the open-source Computer Algebra System giac/xcas.

xcas enables you to quickly solve complex algebraic problems, e.g. symbolic and numeric integration and derivation of non-trivial functions, solving differential equations etc. It has also a huge support for problems of linear algebra, like solving linear equation systems, multiplying and inverting matrices, finding eigenvalues (and eigenvectors, of course) and much more. If you do statistics or number theory, you will like xcas' great functionality in those areas, too!

Built-in TeX output

PocketCAS has the option to automatically use the output of xcas to generate beautiful formula images using mimeTeX. Just enter an expression and you will get the result in the same formatting you would find in a mathematical textbook!

For example, other Computer Algebra Systems would output the following result to the command integrate(sin(x)*cos(x)):

(sin(x))^2/2

With PocketCAS, you will see the formula as a real image (image removed due to xda-dev's limitation to 4 images).

(this is VGA output, on your PDA it will look smaller and even smoother!)

Simple input method for faster solutions

PocketCAS contains a fully-customizable, easy to use mathematical keyboard for quick input of most mathematical functions. You can even assign images to displayed on a button rather than mere text!

Therefore, PocketCAS is as simple to use as a pocket calculator, but provides you with the functionality of a full-blown CAS - in your pocket, wherever you take your PDA with you!

Missing a function or a macro? Simply add it to the keyboard which is stored in a human-editable XML-file!

Simple input method for faster solutions

PocketCAS contains a fully-customizable, easy to use mathematical keyboard for quick input of most mathematical functions. You can even assign images to displayed on a button rather than mere text!

Therefore, PocketCAS is as simple to use as a pocket calculator, but provides you with the functionality of a full-blown CAS - in your pocket, wherever you take your PDA with you!

Missing a function or a macro? Simply add it to the keyboard which is stored in a human-editable XML-file!

Screenshots

Now, lets get to the interesting part: images!

More screenshots at http://pocketcas.com/?Screenshots

System Requirements

PocketCAS needs the following:

About 3 Megabytes of free internal storage (installation on a storage card might be possible, but I didn't try)

At least 64 MB of RAM in total installed in your device (96 MB for Windows Mobile 2003 devices, I think)

.NET Compact Framework 2.0 or newer installed on your device (can be downloaded from Microsoft here - or here if the other package won't work)

At least Windows Mobile 5 to display images rather than text on the mathematical keyboard, Windows Mobile 2003 or later will work but won't display images

Changelog

Version 1.4.0 Skin Edition - 7.7.2009

Skin support: see Screenshots section for details.

For keyboard devices: Pressing Ctrl+Enter now starts the calculation, too.

After calculating, the keyboard will only hide if necessary. The results panel will scroll so that the bottom off the selected element is the same height as the top of the Keyboard.

Improved overall speed and snappiness.

Fixed: Memory leak when switching landscape/portrait mode. This is also a lot faster now.

Fixed: clicking image buttons now triggers as often as other buttons.

Version 1.3.0 Plot Edition - 28.5.2009

Fixed: TeX output will now show c0 rather than cunderline

Added shortcuts for menu commands

Added gnuplot interface: Check Menu->Plot and try it out! I am happy if you send me some screenshots!

This is only very basic plotting functionality at the moment (similar to a techdemo), e.g. panning and zooming with the stylus is not implemented.

At the moment, this feature is only available if you install the large executable packages, or you download and install the separate gnuplot package from this website. Maybe I will create a separate gnuplot CAB later.

Reduced keyboard height on WVGA/WQVGA devices

Updated xcas binaries with the latest frozen source code release (26.5.2009).

Version 1.2.0 Symbol Edition - 26.1.2009

Performance / Memory usage:

Minor optimizations regarding keyboard buildup. (should improve keyboard buildup time and reduce memory usage)

Compiled xcas and MimeTeX using the newest versions of cegcc and the corresponding libraries, but xcas is slightly outdated. (it is version 0.8.2, but it is not the newest build of it)

Improved speed of loading big history files and general speed of the UI very much. Text calculations now take as little as 60 milliseconds and TeX calculations take just 300 milliseconds!

Fixed memory leaks when switching into landscape mode.

Bug fixes:

Deleting the last remaining history element now clears the entire history (similar to File->New) rather than doing nothing.

The restart() function to purge all variables works properly now (patched xcas source - patch has already been merged into official xcas source).

findhelp also works now.

Keyboard changes:

Replaced some texts with appropriate mathematical symbols when inputting via keyboard. (Greek letters, differentials etc.)

Improved lots of the keyboard screens. Moved many buttons to other sections, created 'Letters' section and renamed 'Helper' to 'Expr' (Expression handling). The 'Algebra' section now contaisn real algebraic functions and commands like simplify, expand, etc. have been moved to 'Expr'. Also moved xcas-specific commands (restart, purge, read, quote) to the 2nd screen.

Added a keyboard button ('2nd' section, where all xcas-specific commands are now) to read in files using xcas' read() command (with file selection dialog included).

New features:

Added a menu entry to enable/disable downscaling for TeX output in History mode.

Added a menu entry to cut text snippets, next to copy and paste.

The last session will be loaded automatically upon start.

Package system has been changed. You will have to install two CABs (one Main Package and one Executable Package) on your device now. See Download page for details.

Version 1.1.0 Performace Edition - 11.9.2008

PocketCAS now is distributed via four different CAB files, depending on your device, see Download page for more details

Lines prefixed with an @ letter will be hidden in TeX output mode. This prefix has no effect in non-TeX mode.

Lines prefixed with a // will not be processed by xcas at all. This way you can easily add comments to your scripts.

Bug fixed: 3*4 will now be shown as 3*4 rather than 34 if using TeX mode

Bug fixed: ifactor(15) will return 15 rather than 3*5 if not using TeX mode

Menu redesign (more sub-menus to increase clarity)

Added a feature to save an image of the last result (File->Save as image)

Links on the about page are working now

Replaced the UPX'ed MimeTeX executables by non-UPX'ed ones for an additional performance boost

Several other performance improvements

History function (you get a list of the last commands you entered and you can select which one to execute and edit)

A server executable which will be started upon loading PocketCAS and will stay loaded so that single calculations can be performed much faster

Some results are generated (and TeXed!) in less than a second!

The effect of commands entered before will not be discarded. Therefore previous declarations of variables will work in commands entered later, too

Get more information and download PocketCAS at PocketCAS - a free interface to the xcas Computer Algebra System for Windows Mobile!

Cheers

MrMage