Not much use in the free version

I have to disagree with the person who said Apple already has this program (as "Grapher"). Years ago I had the full version of this program (on a Mac OS 9, no less) and it is light-years beyond "Grapher". In the full version, not only do you not have to choose what coordinate system youre using in advance, like Grapher (instead you just type the equation and let the program figure it out), it can also shift easy from explicit to implicit variable relationships, handle simultaneous equations (even if not all on the same coordinate system), matrix multiplication, color mapping, fractals, 4D equations…and on and on. And it handles them FLUENTLY. Admittedly I havent played around with Grapher nearly as much as I did with the full version of Pacific Techs graphing calculator when I had it — but one major reason for that is the ease of use of Pacific Techs interface.

I do agree with the previous poster on one point, though. The Graphing Calculator Viewer is more or less useless, *except* it does give you some idea of the capabilities of the full version. (You can also "cheat" and edit the example files directly as text, using TextEdit or similar. But thats very finicky; unlike entering in equations in the full version, the program wont fix missing parentheses, suggest symbols (e.g. suggest "theta" when you type "thet") and if you leave out one asterisk or parentheses in the text file, it wont open. But obviously the solution is to buy the full version.)

The full version is five stars. Im thinking about getting it again — no idea what happened to the Mac OS 9 version I had 10 years ago. If I do, Ill write a review there.

MWildcard about Graphing Calculator Viewer