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I have been producing documents (both mathematical and non-mathematical) with Latex for about two years, and I feel rather confortable with it. Now I would like to learn Tex, but I wonder if there are any real reasons to do it rather than just for the fun of it... Is there really anyone using Tex when that person could well be using Latex?
"Learn TeX only if you would like to become a typesetter",
this is a memorable sentence our school project leader answered this question to my colleague years ago... :-)
LaTeX will do the job 99% people need. There is a perfect book about TeX - TexBook naruby, unfortunatelly in Czech only (I doubt it was translated). But just look at it just to get shocked and assure that you really don't want to learn TeX :-)
Advantage of plain tex over latex
reference: http://www.tug.org/pipermail/texhax/2009-October/013645.html
LaTeX moreover, gives very limited access to the features of the TeX
engine. This is just due to the effiency idea of LaTeX. When most urgent
things have been done and you can afford spending some time learning about
what is behind LaTeX and what TeX really offers.
This may help you in understanding difficulties with LaTeX,
why you need some extra packages for certain fine tuning, you may then mix
Plain TeX code into your LaTeX code for fine tuning, you can write your own
LaTeX packages getting more control of TeX ...
Related
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How can I use Isabelle/HOL to automatically generate LaTeX from my source theory files?
Isabelle/HOL's tutorial.pdf is very beautiful. I'm going to write a paper in LaTeX with a lot of Isabelle code in it.
You should first have a look at the existing documentation and come back with more specific questions afterwards (if there remain any; but I'm sure there will ;)).
What you want to do is called document preparation in Isabelle. The first place to look is Chapter 4 Presenting Theories of
the Isabelle System Manual. (Actually it is also a good idea to first read the previous chapter on Isabelle sessions and build management.)
For some neat notation also LaTeX Sugar for Isabelle Documents might be of interest.
Some other useful things, like generating TeX snippets from your Isabelle theories and including them in your document (which you might collaboratively work on with others that do not have Isabelle installed), can be found on the Community Wiki.
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Just for kicks, I'm trying to create an application that can simplify, factor, and expand algebra equations. Programming the rules seems as if it will be straight forward if I can get the equations into a good workable format. Parsing the equations is proving to be a hassle, Currently working with Python but I'm not against having to learn something new.
Are there any libraries (for any language) that would make this project pretty simple, or is that a pipe dream?
[Tagging this with Haskell because I have a feeling that's where the 'simple' is]
Yes, Haskell has many many libraries that make writing parsers reasonably easy. Parsec is a good start, and it even has clones in other languages, including Python (that article also links to pyparsing which looks like it might also work).
This answer of mine is an example (note, it's probably not top-notch Parsec or Haskell): it's indicative of the power of Haskell's parsing libraries, precisely 4 lines of code implement the whole parser.
You could also browse old questions and answers to get a feel for the various libraries and techniques, e.g. parsec, parsing+haskell and parsing+python.
The best way to work out your line of attack for the larger project would be to start small and just try stuff until you're comfortable with your tools: choose a library and try to implement a relatively simple parser, like parsing expressions with just numbers, + and *, or even just parsing numbers and + with bracketing... something small (but not too small; those two examples each have non-trivialities, the first has operator precedence and the second has recursive nesting). If you don't like the library much, try a different library.
It's been done in just about every language.
Python has a library for parsing algebraic equations and symbolic mathematics all ready to go:
http://code.google.com/p/sympy/
I'd recommend reusing, unless your purpose is to learn how to write such a thing.
Python or matlab would be my suggestions. Are you planning on storing the whole equation in a string, and then split it up, to factor and simplify?
Give some more information, kindof a cool project.
This is an old question, but I'd like to suggest you MathParseKit.
This is a C++ library that given a string like "2*3/4" gives you a Tree of functions/variable/constants that defines the expression.
You can solve it, but you can even change it and put it again in string format.
You can find it at:
https://github.com/B3rn475/MathParseKit
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How can I learn how to create LaTeX styles?
The normal way when creating a LaTeX document is to start with something like.
\documentclass[a4paper]{report}
\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\documentclass[a4paper]{letter}
And that seems to call a .cls (and a .sty) file like letter.cls,
that is controlling the actual layout of the document.
Is there a good way to learn how to create this type of "latex style files"?
Has someone created a howto, step-by-step or simply a good manual on the topic?
Thanks
Johan
update:
I guess that tex.stackexchange.com is the answer on how to continue learning LaTeX.
With questions like this: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/528/style-class-tutorials
There are two good papers in the PracTeX journal:
Minutes in Less Than Hours: Using LaTeX Resources by Jim Hefferon,
Rolling your own Document Class by Peter Flynn.
A very useful resource is LATEX2e for class and package writers.
This question is also discussed here: Style/class tutorials. You are kindly invited to use the links there and perhaps join the discussion there if you like.
This isn't a direct answer to your question, but may give you a better return on the time invested, depending on how you see your future use of LaTeX.
Memoir for documents, Beamer for presentations.
"All the LaTeX styles you'll ever
need!"
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I am looking for a web-based WYSIWYG (or WYSIWYM) editor like TinyMCE or WMD Editor (used to write this question) that supports users to write mathematical formulas. I have looked at LaTeX a little bit but it has a learning curve and I am not sure if support for MathML is extensive. Ideally I would also like to avoid having to rewrite an editor and would rather just pick one off the shelf.
Would like to know if any of you have dealt with a similar situation and what solution you adopted/built.
I was looking for something similar and came across this question. Then I was excited to find Mathquill, via the Wikipedia page on formula editors.
I've used a bunch of different formula editors, from MS Equation Editor to Google Docs' to LyX, and this is probably the most usable/fluid of all of them for simply banging out formulas. And it's web-based and GPL. This thing is much nicer than Google Docs' formula editor, at least.
Still leaves plenty of things to be desired, e.g. so far I've found: bolding, entering things like bra-kets, \hat, undo/redo history, mouse drag selection, etc. But I'm impressed by what's already in there. Anyway, it's just a few Javascript files, and on github.
http://www.dessci.com/en/ has the software to do exactly what you want.
I used texvc in a project a while back (what wikipedea uses) and it was reasonable, but it isn't really WYSIWYG. On the other hand, I prefer that since in many cases it's easier to specify what you mean than draw it.
see here DragMath
http://www.dragmath.bham.ac.uk/index.html
which is already used by Moodle and other sites.
And its Open Source
WIRIS would be another Javascript based visual math editor (commercial license required for some applications).
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I've been using LaTeX for about 3-4 years now. In that time I've picked up what I've needed as I've needed it, most often by Googling. However, I'd like to learn some more advanced features of LaTeX such as editing or even creating my own class files and bibtex styles. I've worked with some fairly powerful class files before, but I have a tough time understanding the syntax as it's rather obscure.
Does anyone know of a good tutorial (or book) that I can use to learn such advanced features of LaTeX?
For the really advanced stuff, nothing can beat the dtx files describing the LaTeX classes themselves. Your TeX distribution might not have shipped them, so get them from CTAN; the dtx files are usually stripped of comments before being installed, but you can compile them with LaTeX to get the comments and code nicely typeset.
TUGboat has some advanced articles as well.
Have a look at the LaTeX Companion.
Have a look at the answers in these questions:
Best practices in LaTeX
What is the fastest way to learn LaTeX basics? (especially the second answer has some nice references)
I have been using a few books over the years,
Guide to LaTeX by Helmut Kopka and Patrick W. Daly
The LaTeX Companion (Tools and Techniques for Computer Typesetting) by Frank Mittelbach, Michel Goossens, Johannes Braams and David Carlisle
And the clssic
LaTeX: A Document Preparation System by Leslie Lamport
Also,
the soft book available at http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/lshort/english/ is a moderately good one.
Moreover, as advised above, make it a practice to read the dtx files when you start using a new style file.
Some of these advanced topics are covered in the Wikibook. There is also the (Not So) Short introduction to LaTeX2e.