Wolfram Workbench 2: Create and Deliver Innovative Applications Faster

February 17, 2010—Wolfram Research today announced the release of Wolfram Workbench 2, the leading solution for enterprise-class software development and deployment. New in Version 2 is the ability to create and integrate documentation for your Mathematica applications, as well as a host of improvements to code editing, navigation, and more. Workbench is used throughout Wolfram Research; it is a key tool for the development of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha, and other Wolfram technologies.

Built on the Eclipse software platform, Workbench 2 combines Mathematica‘s ever-growing programming language and world-renowned computation, visualization, and modeling features with one of the world’s leading integrated development environments (IDEs). It gives developers the luxury of working with any Eclipse-supported language, making Workbench one of the market’s most efficient organizational tools.

“The ability to develop for different technologies, through all stages of the development cycle, within one application significantly increases productivity,” said Adam Berry, senior developer of Workbench. “By removing the need to change environments, Workbench allows you to focus on your development instead of on your tools.”

Workbench lets developers code as they think, using Mathematica‘s multi-paradigm expression language in tandem with first-class tool support. Workbench helps minimize transition time from development through maintenance. Developers will achieve faster R&D and deployment with Workbench‘s top features, such as these:

• Source editor with syntax coloring, code folding, and error reporting
• Integrated debugging, profiling, and unit testing
• Mathematica pattern-based search, warnings, and refactoring
• Industry-standard version-control support
• Eclipse plugins for enhanced language support

Workbench was integral to the development of Wolfram|Alpha. The world’s first computational knowledge engine, Wolfram|Alpha has millions of lines of code that must interact and work together, as well as many groups and team members working on the same code base. Workbench lets everyone involved quickly track down bugs and other problems and easily solve them. Features like version-control support let developers check out a project, work on it, do tests, and then check code back into the global repository. The key role Workbench 2 played in the development of Wolfram|Alpha is further explained in a video.

Workbench requires Mathematica 6 or higher and is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It can also be used with gridMathematica, webMathematica, Mathematica for the Classroom, Mathematica for Students, and Mathematica Home Edition. It is for sale from the Wolfram web store and available as a free download to all Wolfram Research Premier Service customers.

Advanced training on Workbench is available from Wolfram Education Group, covering core Mathematica programming concepts including source code editing, debugging, and unit testing. A complete description of the course, including registration information, is online.

For more information about Wolfram Workbench 2, visit its product pages.