There is new release of Seco - 0.8.0. This is yet another incremental improvement of the first of its kind JVM-based notebook environment.
The release is intended to lower the entry barrier further by bundling several languages in the build out of the box, in addition to the JScheme & Beanshell old timer, most notably a new system for symbolic mathematics, similar to Mathematica!
- Groovy - latest version (at the time of this writing of course) is bundled, version 2.4.11. There is more work to be done here, defining classes is not supported. Groovy's internals offer several different ways to compile or interpret code, and the internal architecture overall is organized around compilation. Even its own REPL had to be patched to allow global variable declaration in a more interactive environment. But Groovy has gained lots of ground and several useful DSLs are build on top so it would be worth spending more time to support it better.
- JRuby - version 1.2.0 (shouldn't be hard to upgrade, probably next release). JRuby apparently beats Ruby native on several benchmarks, supports almost the full language (except things like call/cc which is to be expected for the JVM), so why one doesn't hear about it more is unclear.
- JPython - Version 2.5.1 bundled, nothing has changed here.
- Prolog (TuProlog) - Sans changement as well...works well!
- JavaScript (Rhino) - No changes here either. However, given recent JavaScript implementation for the JVM, an update is in order.
- Symja (Symbolic Mathematics) - this is a new biggy! The Seco notebook UI is obviously inspired (to the point of being a clone of) the Mathematica notebooks. This project brings symbolic mathematics to Seco. It has its own syntax, though I believe it is possible to plugin a Mathematica-compatible syntax. Other goodies such as LaTex formula display and a plotter for mathematical graphics are within the project scope, but need better integration. The Symja project is by Axel Kramer and can be found at https://bitbucket.org/axelclk/symja_android_library. As I understand there is a version that works on the Android OS and Axel is mostly focused on maintaining that at the moment. Here are some examples of Symja in action:
Besides that, a few bugs have been fixed, one of which was very annoying - it prevents wrapping long lines in exceptions within output cells. If you have used Seco for a while, you have certainly run into that bug...well now it's gone.
Another small new feature: one can set a default language for the whole niche via the new Niche menu. Also the XMPP support for a chat room and exchanging notebooks is back working (from the Networks Menu).
After being dormant for more years than I care to admit, the project seems to be getting some attention lately!
Cheers,
Boris
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