[BlackGriffen]

This thread is meant to be a "share what you know about" threads. Just to give you an idea of how broad this software category is, I'll list some apps that I believe fall in this category:

• gnuplot - free (viz)
• R - free (viz, manip)
• Aabel - $ (viz, manip)
• Igor - $ (viz, manip)
• IDL - $ (viz, manip)
• Perl - free (manip)
• awk - free (manip)
• root - free (viz, manip)
• Matlab - $ (viz?, manip?)
• scilab - free (viz?, manip?)
• Octave - free (viz?, manip?)
• Office packages (Excel, OO.org, KOffice, Appleworks, etc) - free to $ (viz, manip)

This doesn't even include the CAS's, which may or may not be considered part this whole mess:

• Mathematica - $
• Maple - $
• Maxima - free
• Yacas, GiNaC, gTybalt, etc - free

Then there are, of course, the masochistic options like C/C++, Java, etc.l

So, what's your poison, and what makes it better than other people's poison?

BlackGriffen

[G-Force]

Well I guess my suggestions would be

• SAS JMP 5 - $ (viz, manip)
• The SAS System v6.12 (Classic Only) - $ (viz, manip)
• Deltagraph 5 - $ (viz, manip)

Unfortunately none of these are free and in fact, they are quite pricey, however very good I have found.