How Does CDF Compare to Other Technologies?

Traditional documents are easy to author, but are limited to content that's static or can only be played back. Interactivity is familiar in apps, but requires programmers to create.

CDFs are as interactive as apps, yet as everyday as documents. Interactivity isn't just pre-generated but live. And authoring for many cases is easy enough for non-programmers to create interactive content without specialist help.

Supported Supported     Partially supported Partially supported  
   CDF PDF JS HTML5 Flash Java TeX EPUB™ 3.0.1 MS Office™

General Usability

Desktop application functionality
Supported       Partially supported Supported      
Embedding on a webpage
Supported   Supported Supported Supported Supported   Partially supported  
Full page within a browser
Supported Supported   Supported Partially supported     Partially supported Supported
Dynamic document hierarchy
Supported Supported           Partially supported Supported
Mobile application functionality
Supported                

Interactivity

CDF PDF JS HTML5 Flash Java TeX EPUB™ 3.0.1 MS Office™
Dynamically interactive charts and diagrams
Supported   Partially supported Partially supported Partially supported Partially supported      
Interactive coding with free-form input
Supported                
Automatic interface construction
Supported                
Customizable user interfaces
Supported   Partially supported Partially supported Partially supported Partially supported      
Tactile and responsive GUI
Supported                

Graphics

CDF PDF JS HTML5 Flash Java TeX EPUB™ 3.0.1 MS Office™
GPU-accelerated 2D and 3D graphics
Supported Partially supported Partially supported Partially supported Partially supported Partially supported      
Integration of 3D graphics within a document
Supported     Partially supported Partially supported       Partially supported
Built-in plots and charts for a broad range of subjects
Supported               Partially supported
Automated visualization aesthetics
Supported                

Computation

CDF PDF JS HTML5 Flash Java TeX EPUB™ 3.0.1 MS Office™
Comprehensive computational algorithms
Supported       Partially supported       Partially supported
Fully integrated specialist functionality
Supported                
Built-in finance and data analysis functions
Supported               Partially supported

Publication

CDF PDF JS HTML5 Flash Java TeX EPUB™ 3.0.1 MS Office™
Cloud-based collaboration and sharing
Supported   Partially supported Partially supported         Supported
Mathematical and scientific typesetting
Supported           Supported   Partially supported
Live math typesetting
Supported           Partially supported   Partially supported
Retargetable documents
Supported Partially supported   Partially supported   Partially supported   Partially supported Partially supported
MathML support
Supported Partially supported   Partially supported         Supported
Mobile deployment and viewing
Supported                

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