In second year I started a personal project to produce a visual teaching tool for mathematics. It started as a result of a numerical methods course I did in my Applied Maths course, and the original intention was to play with splines.

Well, I never got anywhere near splines, but when I was finished, I had a package that would graph arbitrary functions (one and two variables), step you through numerical integration, differentiation and various root finding algoriths, plot 2D and 3D parametric curves, 2D and 3D phase portraits, and slope fields. I can't take all the credit for it. My friends were determined beta testers and without the comprehensive help written by Clare Johnson Newt wouldn't be anywhere near as accessible as it is today.

The UCT Maths Department have been using Newt for the last four or five years in their first year maths course. For various reasons the version they had was tied to their network and expired annually. This year I decided I'd just give them a non-expiring build that students could use at home. In retrospect I don't know why I didn't just do this from the start. I suppose I had grand dreams of becoming a millionaire or something silly like that.

So, if you're an educational institution, or just someone who's battling to visualize calculus (or even trigonometric graphs at high school) and would like a copy of Newt drop me a line. I've yet to put a full build up for general downloading but I'll get there, eventually. After all, it only took me five years to get here.

The Newt web site has more details covering what Newt can do, and includes a range of screen shots.

I haven't released the source code, and I'm unlikely to mostly because it's some of the most horrible code I've ever produced. It truly is awful and I'm surprised Newt works as well as it does. Just don't contrive to use it in any life-support systems.