Everyone knows that Maple combines a smart user interface with a highly sophisticated mathematical engine, where common tasks are performed quickly and seamlessly with point, click and drag operations. Of equal importance, however, is the fact that Maple is also backed by a comprehensive programming language. Also called "Maple", this language combines elements from procedural languages (like C), functional languages (like Lisp) as well as object oriented languages (like C++). Programming in this language is easy to learn and results in powerful code, due to high-level constructs (like map and seq), built-in knowledge of mathematical data structures and concepts, support for writing multi-threaded, parallel programs as well as a very rich library of existing commands and algorithms.

In fact, over 90 percent of the algorithms built into Maple have been implemented using this same programming language. Our developers, as well as our partners in research labs around the world, use the Maple language to create new Maple functionality. This same language is available to any Maple user for writing scripts, implementing new algorithms and extending the Maple system. Millions of lines of Maple code have been created, with more being produced every day.

The Maple IDE, which we just released today, will make it dramatically easier to create, manage and update libraries of Maple code. Together with our partner DigiArea Inc., we have created a modern development environment on top of the popular Eclipse framework. Features include the ability to quickly browse and search through source hierarchies, highlighting based on syntactic and semantic properties of the code, navigation, testing and much more. Programming medium to large libraries in Maple is suddenly a feasible option for more customers.

The new IDE will continue to evolve and you can expect a steady stream of new features in the near future. At the same time, we also continue to add coding functionality to our worksheet interface (like the code edit region in Maple 17 ) for writing small procedures and for developing Möbius Apps .

Whether you are new to programming in Maple or whether you are a seasoned expert, I urge you to give the Maple IDE a try. I know that many of you are relying on trusted companions like vi, emacs and notepad for your code development. I have switched to the IDE and I can say that I don't miss vi (much  ).