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Re: Trying to use Mathematica as "word processor" for my math homework

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg44452] Re: Trying to use Mathematica as "word processor" for my math homework
• From: Paul Abbott <paul at physics.uwa.edu.au>
• Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 04:52:22 -0500 (EST)
• Organization: The University of Western Australia
• References: <bo7oud$aj1$1@smc.vnet.net> <bofsl1$5ko$1@smc.vnet.net>
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

In article <bofsl1$5ko$1 at smc.vnet.net>,
 Steve Gray <stevebg at adelphia.net> wrote:

> 	I have found Mathematica  to be so incompetent at basic typesetting,
> and its behavior so bizarre and unpredicatble,  that I would never use
> it for what you are doing. I know how to set math in Mathematica (up to its
> severe limitations),

Do you mind listing these? I have never found the basic typesetting 
behavior bizarre or unpredicatble, so I'm interested to understand what 
problems you've encountered.

> in Tex (non-wysiwyg), and in Word. It's not a good route for publishing, 
> but I think Word and Equation Editor are the easiest and most reliable 
> of the methods. 

I find this suprising. Equation Editor is fine but the behavior of Word 
certainly can be bizarre, unpredicatble, and really annoying!

> I had a paper in the March 03 Math Monthly, which I originally wrote in 
> Word and translated to Tex with the help of some automated software.

All of my publications since 1995 have resulted from (semi-) automatic 
conversion of Notebooks to TeX. 

> 	Keep in mind that not many people agree with me on this.

To me, the principal strength of Mathematica's typesetting is the 
unification between form and function. Typeset equations, or at least 
parts of them, are understood by the Mathematica kernel. This is not the 
case with TeX or Word.

Also, some journals are starting to accept Notebooks, which simplifies 
the conversion process.

Cheers,
Paul

-- 
Paul Abbott                                   Phone: +61 8 9380 2734
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