GNU Octave 5.2.0

GNU Octave is an incredibly powerful and versatile tool for developing instrument control software. It is great for building complex mathematical models and visualizing data in 2D and 3D. It also offers a range of skins for customizing its interface, as well as a shell script for automating tasks. The syntax is easy to understand and use, making it a great choice for anyone looking to develop instrument control software.

GNU Octave is a scientific programming language that allows users to write code in a mathematics-oriented syntax with the purpose of building software for instrument control, mechanics, or bioinformatics.

Built as an alternative to MATLAB, Octave can be run in GUI mode, as a console, or invoked as part of a shell script. Its UI includes skins, advanced customizations, and 2D or 3D data visualizations. Still, for a software of its size, it uses a lot of RAM and CPU resources.

Its features include data visualization and vectorization for data science purposes. For applications that you want to build inside, Octave GNU comes with a command line.

Specialized users can use its functions to solve systems of equations with linear algebra operations on vectors and matrices. Moreover, the have can visualize data using high-level plot commands either in 2D or 3D.

To conclude, GNU Octave is an open-source mathematical modeling and simulation software. It embeds most of its biggest competitor features and has one major advantage: it's free. Also, it's quite fast and can be easily learned.