What is Mathcad?
The basic metaphor of Mathcad is the technical notebook. A scientist or engineer takes a piece of paper and writes down equations, solves equations, adds figures, drawings, annotations, and data. Such notebooks often have printed serial and page numbers, and for some cases, are considered legal documents, used in patent and liability cases.
What Mathcad does it to put this all on the computer. Instead of using Fortran or C/C++, mathematical equations and formulas are written in WYSIWYG format, and solved using a numerical or symbolic computational engine:
Additional capabilities include creation of graphs, importing graphics, reading/writing data files, and (with the release of the latest version) limited programming capabilities.
Additional information about Mathcad can be found at the Mathsoft web site.