Seemingly out of the blue, a new data analysis application has been released for RISC OS. Called Luafox, the program offers a range of features, including import of CSV and ODS (Open Office) files, easy table manipulation, project management and graph creation. It's rare for commercial software to make an appearance on RISC OS these days, so it's a brave move of Dr Michael Gerbracht to produce and market the app.
 

First impressions

Luafox certainly gets some of the basics right. There's a smart website with some screenshots of the product. There's also a demo version to try before you buy. Sadly, this only works on StrongARM machines, meaning that my non-StrongARM VRPC was unable to run it reliably. However, even on my system I got it to run for a while before the inevitable crash, so I was able to tinker with it and manipulate some numbers.
 

 
I'm no scientist, so most of its functionality was beyond me. However, it looks pretty professional, and some thought has clearly gone into the interface. I'm not a huge fan of the garish icons (they look like they were imported from ArtWorks with little retouching), but overall the app looks capable. It's certainly brimming with options. Aside from the table view (pictured in the screenshot), there's also a management window with panes for the various sections of your project.
 
At present the software is aimed at students of natural sciences, though there are plans for a professional version of the software offering more specific functions that meet the requirements of technology-driven companies, institutes and universities. As the software already has hat-loads of features, it will be interesting to see what these are. The PDF manual, just like the website, is smart and helpful.

Prospects

I wonder about the market for this, however. At €89 for a single site licence, it's not exactly cheap. And the market for scientific software on RISC OS can't be huge. I wonder whether an open source application might have been a better choice. Luafox, as the name suggests, is written in Gavin Wraith's port of Lua, and it might have been useful for the libraries used by the application to have been more widely available for others wishing to try it out themselves.
 
Still, we wish Michael every success with this interesting looking application. If anyone has any experience using it, then let us know!
 
Link: Luafox