Algebrus is a powerful computational tool that fills the vast void between calculator and full-blown analysis programs such as S-Plus or Gauss. Of all its features (including vector and matrix operations, solving ordinary differential equations, linear algebra, etc.) the one I find most useful is the built-in programming language which they call XPascal. It allows you to create your own procedures, functions and libraries. You can instruct Algebrus to load your libraries at startup and use them just as if they were built-in functions and procedures.

Algebrus uses extended precision which makes working with "large" numbers possible. For example, it's quite easy to create a Factorial function for dealing with permutations and combinations. Algebrus will handle exponents up to about 4,900 so that analyzing binomial distributions with 1,000 or so items is no longer out of reach.

Another important feature is Algebrus' graphing capabilities. Simply define your function (or import data!) and type in a command to plot it over a specified range and you have your plot. This can also be done under program control. Plots are well laid out and scaled though there appears to be a slight anomaly when dealing with very large numbers - the numbers for scaling the ordinate are not done properly but I expect this to be fixed in a later release.

Space does not permit covering all the features of this wonderful program. I can, however, heartily recommend it!