The MathOverflow question [Open source mathematical software](https://mathoverflow.net/questions/19046/open-source-mathematical-software) contains a list of programs that are useful to perform various computational tasks, such as computer algebra systems.


However, evaluating complicated formulas is not all that a professional mathematician needs to do. For instance, another important part of it is *communicating* results, producing papers and slides. There was a Mathoverflow question devoted specifically to
[tools for collaborative paper writing.](https://mathoverflow.net/questions/3044/tools-for-collaborative-paper-writing)


It would be useful to identify and gather on MO a list of **areas of activities** where research mathematicians can use software as part of their professional activity.


I think it would also be useful to gather on MO a list of **software** that does not strictly do *computations*, but is nevertheless useful to those who research and teach mathematics.


The first example that springs to mind is of course $\LaTeX$, but there is much more:


* citation and literature management software, such as Jabref, Zotero, Mendeley
* conference management software, such as [Open Conference Systems](http://pkp.sfu.ca/?q=ocs) (never actually used it, but it seems interesting)
* reference tools such as the [Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences](https://oeis.org/) and [Plouffe's Inverter](http://pi.lacim.uqam.ca/eng/)
* Euclidean geometry software such as Geogebra
* diff'ing and merging tools, such as [latexdiff](http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/latexdiff), [kdiff3](http://kdiff3.sourceforge.net/)
* specific LaTeX packages such as Beamer for presentations or several drawing packages (TikZ, Eukleides).


I find some of those real gems, and I'd like to find out more examples. So, the question is:



> 
> Can you provide (other) examples of programs that are useful to professional mathematicians in their job, while not being strictly speaking "software that does complicated computations"?
> 
> 
> 


The question is a little broad and perhaps if there is much software relevant to a specific activity it will be wise to ask, based on input given to the question, a more specific question. Also please do not interpret this question too broadly (see discussion below).


Also check these MO questions: [Tools for collaborative paper-writing](https://mathoverflow.net/questions/3044/tools-for-collaborative-paper-writing) (mainly regarding revision control software), [Most helpful math resources on the web](https://mathoverflow.net/questions/2147/most-helpful-math-resources-on-the-web) (mainly regarding online databases of something).



Non-computational software useful to mathematicians
This is my short list of math related software not used for computing. I made an effort to list software in descending order with respect to the frequency of use. I left out $\TeX$ and my version control system of choice [CVS](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/cvs) since OP was not interested in those. 


1. A good editor. My choice goes to [nvi](https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi).
2. A spell checker like [ispell](http://lasr.cs.ucla.edu/geoff/ispell.html).
3. Regular expressions for pattern matching/search.
4. [Make](http://lasr.cs.ucla.edu/geoff/ispell.html) utility.
5. I do not know about you guys but for us who must teach and manage grade books nothing comes close to being as useful as [awk](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AWK).
6. A good file synchronizer like [Unison](http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/).
7. [Shell script](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_script)(sh).
8. [sed](https://www.seeuthere.com/editreg/m1312d5d-1OA4L84WLR3NZ).
9. An e-mail client like [mailx](http://heirloom.sourceforge.net/mailx.html).
10. PostScript language as a page description language for printing but also a tool for teaching geometry classes. Obviously you must have PostScript interpreter on your computer like GhostScript (comes with a viewer) and a good PS manipulation tool like psutils.
11. A tool for manipulation of PDF files. I like [Pdftk](http://www.graphicsmagick.org/).
12. Python as a glue language and for instance its library [Matplotlib](http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/) for making illustrations.
13. A good image processing tool like [Graphics Magic](http://www.graphicsmagick.org/).
14. Vectorial drawing program as [Xfig](http://www.xfig.org/).


