List of open-source software for mathematics

This is a list of open-source software to be used for high-order mathematical calculations. This software has played an important role in the field of mathematics. Open-source software in mathematics has become pivotal in education because of the high cost of textbooks.

A computer algebra system (CAS) is a software product designed for manipulation of mathematical formulae. The principal objective of a computer algebra system is to systematize monotonous and sometimes problematic algebraic manipulation tasks. The primary difference between a computer algebra system and a traditional calculator is the ability to deal with equations symbolically rather than numerically. The precise uses and capabilities of these systems differ greatly from one system to another, yet their purpose remains the same: manipulation of symbolic equations. Computer algebra systems often include facilities for graphing equations and provide a programming language for the users' own procedures.

Axiom is a general-purpose CAS. It has been in development since 1971 by IBM, and was originally named scratchpad. Richard Jenks originally headed it but over the years Barry Trager who then shaped the direction of the scratchpad project took over the project. It was eventually sold to the Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG) and was renamed Axiom. After a failure to launch as a product, NAG decided to release it as a free software in 2001 with more than 300 man-years worth of research involved. Axiom is licensed under a Modified BSD license.

A CAS designed for the solution of problems in physical field theory. An unpublished computational program written in Pascal called Abra inspired this open-source software. Abra was originally designed for physicists to compute problems present in quantum mechanics. Kespers Peeters then decided to write a similar program in C computing language rather than Pascal, which he renamed Cadabra. However, Cadabra has been expanded for a wider range of uses, it is no longer restricted to physicists.

CoCoA (COmputations in COmmutative Algebra) is open-source software used for computing multivariate polynomials and initiated in 1987. Originally written in Pascal, CoCoA was later translated into C.

GAP was initiated by RWTH Aachen University in 1986. This was the case until in 1997 when they decided to co-develop GAP further with CIRCA (Centre for Research in Computational Algebra). Unlike MAXIMA and Axiom, GAP is a system for computational discrete algebra with particular emphasis on computational group theory. In March 2005 the GAP Council and the GAP developers have agreed that status and responsibilities of "GAP Headquarters" should be passed to an equal collaboration of a number of "GAP Centres", where there is permanent staff involvement and an element of collective or organizational commitment, while fully recognizing the vital contributions of many individuals outside those centers.

Mathomatic is portable general-purpose computer algebra system capable of performing symbolic calculus, algebraic simplification, and equation solving.

Mathics is an open-source GPL3 license version of the Wolfram Language.