Re: math notation

From: Alan Horkan (horkana@tcd.ie)
Date: Mon Mar 25 2002 - 18:19:53 EST

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    The newly updated mailing list section of the faq
    http://abisource.com/support/faq/
    suggests that people check the top ten list
    http://bugzilla.abisource.com/buglist.cgi?bug_status=SUBMITTED&bug_status=OPEN&bug_status=POSTPONED&votes=1&order=bugs.votes+desc%2C+bugs.priority%2C+bugs.bug_severity&keywords=rfe&keywords_type=anywords
    before making suggestions

    I personally suggest that people gather together, all pay a small but fair
    amount and buy the time of one of the developers to work on particular
    feature. (there are problems with the implementation of this i know but
    i am offering small amounts towards the features i want)

    There is a Request for maths and equation editing, and if will probably
    get implemented when/if the developers can afford the time.

    On Mon, 25 Mar 2002, Bruce Koehn wrote:

    > Abiword could become the darling of the scientific world
    > if it could handle mathematical notation in a manner similar
    > to TeX.

    I assume you are already familiar with LyX and OpenOffice (it has an
    equation editor). I know Open Office has a bad reputation for being a bit
    big and slow but it is cross platform and has gotten much better and is
    getting better and i like it.

    i found this link on Google for a windows version
    http://www.fh-hannover.de/mbau/tim/hentschel/lyx/

    I dont use LyX myself i have learnt enough LaTeX for my needs
    there is a great tutorial here
    http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~dwilkins/LaTeXPrimer/

    > 3. Cross platform compatibility would make life much easier since
    > such a variety of platforms are used in the scientific world.

    > 4. Internationalization is another driver because scientists tend
    > to communinicate internationally.

    > 5. Except for mathematical constructs, TeX and LaTeX are difficult
    > to use well. Merging the best of Abiword and TeX makes sense.

    If you have not already taken a long hard look at LyX you definately
    should.

    > 6. XML would be apealing to many scientists who prefer the ability
    > to use a text editor for much of their authoring work.

    Hand coding Math ML in XML is totally impractical, it was never designed
    for that (beleive me i tried).
    Mathematica from wolfram does export to MathML, and there are several
    programs that convert from LaTeX to MathML.
    There is some useful information available on the Mozilla.org website.

    Have you tried LaHelper? It is a Gnome tool to help convert mathematics
    to LaTeX
    http://lahelper.sourceforge.net/

    > I don't know if XML has tags for producing mathematical text ala
    > TeX but such tags should not be hard to define.

    It does, it is called MathML (but im repeating myself).
    http://www.w3.org/Math/

    > Version 2.0 perhaps?
    >
    > Regards,
    > Bruce Koehn

    Google is your friend, learn to love google
    http://www.google.com
    Asking the right question is often half the problem

    The DMCA (also known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act) is Evil.
    http://theregister.co.uk/content/6/24533.html
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    Hope that helps

    Sincerely

    Alan Horkan
    Trinty College Dublin

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