Connections With Other Applications
Communication with other applications occurs through a protocol called MathLink. It allows communication between the Mathematica kernel and front-end, and also provides a general interface between the kernel and other applications.
Although Mathematica has a large array of functionality, a number of interfaces to other software have been developed, for use where other programs have functionality that Mathematica does not provide, to enhance those applications, or to access legacy code.
Wolfram Research freely distributes a developer kit for linking applications written in the C programming language to the Mathematica kernel through MathLink.
Using .NET/Link., a .NET program can ask Mathematica to perform computations; likewise, a Mathematica program can load .NET classes, manipulate .NET objects and perform method calls. This makes it possible to build .NET graphical user interfaces from within Mathematica. Similar functionality is achieved with J/Link., but with Java programs instead of .NET programs.
Communication with SQL databases is achieved through built-in support for JDBC. Mathematica can also install web services from a WSDL description.
Other languages that connect to Mathematica include Haskell, AppleScript, Racket, Visual Basic, Python and Clojure.
Links are available to many specialized mathematical software packages including OpenOffice.org Calc, Microsoft Excel, MATLAB, R, Sage, SINGULAR, Wolfram SystemModeler and Origin.
Mathematical equations can be exchanged with other computational or typesetting software via MathML.
Mathematica can capture real-time data via a link to LabView, from financial data feeds and directly from hardware devices via GPIB (IEEE 488), USB and serial interfaces. It automatically detects and reads from HID devices.
Alternative interfaces are available such as JMath, based on GNU readline and MASH which runs self-contained Mathematica programs (with arguments) from the UNIX command line.
Read more about this topic: Mathematica
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